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THE    BIBLE 

IN 

THE   WORLD    OF    TODAY 


THE    BIBLE 


IN  THE 


WORLD    OF    TODAY 


CLARENCE   A.  BARBOUR,  D.D. 

ASSOCIATE    SECRETARY    RELIGIOUS    WORK    DEPARTMENT 
INTERNATIONAL    COMMITTEE    OF    YOUNG    MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN    ASSOCIATIONS 


ASSOCIATION    PRESS 

NEW    YORK:    124    EAST   28TH    STREET 
LONDON:  47  PATERNOSTER   ROW,  E.G. 


Copyright,  igii. 

By  the  International  Committee  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations 


FOREWORD 

Books  regarding  the  Bible  are  many  and  vari- 
ous. The  only  vaHd  excuse  for  the  appearance 
of  another  is  that  it  presents  material  nowhere 
else  available  in  collected  form  and  that  it  seems 
to  answer  a  real  need.  This  volume  is  prepared 
especially  for  use  in  connection  with  the  Men  and 
Religion  Movement  in  North  America,  but  it  is 
believed  that  it  will  find  a  yet  wider  usefulness. 

The  first  chapter  makes  no  attempt  at  the  sug- 
gestion or  solution  of  critical  questions  concern- 
ing the  text  of  Scripture.  Its  aim  is  to  put  in 
vivid  and  readable  form  such  information  as  will 
be  interesting  and  useful  to  the  average  man. 
Use  has  been  made  of  material  from  a  multi- 
tude of  works  concerning  the  making  of  the 
Bible,  such  as,  How  We  Got  Our  Bible,  and 
The  Old  Documents  and  the  New  Bible,  by  J. 
Paterson  Smyth,  LL.D.,  of  Trinity  College,  Dub- 
lin, published  by  Samuel  Bagster  and  Sons ;  The 
History  of  the  English  Bible,  by  T.  Harwood 
Pattison,  D.D.,  published  by  the  American  Bap- 
tist Publication  Society;  and  The  Bible  —  Its 
Origin  and  Nature,  by  Marcus  Dods,  D.D. 


vi  FOREWORD 

The  second  chapter,  by  T.  Harwood  Pattison, 
D.D.,  is  used  by  permission  of  the  American 
Baptist  PubHcation  Society. 

The  third  chapter,  by  James  Orr,  D.D.,  is  taken, 
by  permission  of  the  pubHshers,  the  George  H. 
Doran  Company,  from  their  volume.  The  Bible 
under  Trial. 

The  fourth  chapter,  by  Frederick  W.  Farrar, 
D.D.,  F.R.S.,  is  reprinted,  by  the  permission  of 
the  publishers,  Longmans,  Green  and  Company, 
from  their  volume,  The  Bible,  Its  Meaning  and 
Supremacy. 

The  other  chapters  in  the  book  have  appeared 
under  the  Association  Press  imprint  in  various 
forms,  but  are  now  assembled  in  whole  or  in  part, 
that  they  may  be  more  easily  within  the  reach 
of  all. 

That  minds  may  be  informed  and  quickened, 
faith  strengthened  and  genuine  Christian  char- 
acter established  in  those  to  whom  this  volume 
shall  come,  is  our  hope  and  prayer. 

Clarence  A.  Barbour 

New  York  City, 
September  first,  191 1. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I    HOW   WE    GOT   OUR   BIBLE    ...  i 

Clarence  A.  Barbour,  D.D. 

Associate  Secretary   Religious    Work  Department 

International  Committee  of  Young  Men's 

Christian  Associations 

II    THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  TWENTIETH 

CENTURY 33 

T.  Harwood  Pattison,  D.D. 

Late  Professor  of  Homiletics  i7t  the  Rochester  Theo- 
logical Seminary 

III  THE    BIBLE    THE     HOPE    OF    THE 

WORLD 73 

James  Orr,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Apologetics  and  Systematic  Theology  in 

the  United  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow 

IV  THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE  .       99 
Frederick  W.^Farrar,  D.D.,  F.R.S. 

Late  Dean  of  Canterbury,  England 

V    THE  ABIDING  VALUE  OF  THE  OLD 

TESTAMENT, 127 

George  L.  Robinson,  Ph.D. 

Professor  Old  Testament  Literature  and  Exegesis 

in  the  McCormick  Theological  Seminary, 

Chicago 


viu  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

VI    BIBLE    STUDY    THE    GREAT    WAY 

INTO    LIFE'S    VALUES      ....     149 
Henry  Churchill  King,  LL.D. 

President  of  Oberlin  College 

VII  WHY  SHOULD  EVERY  YOUNG 
MAN  READ  AND  STUDY  THE 
BIBLE?  .     .    , 165 

James  McConaughy 

Professor  of  the  English  Bible,  Mount  Herman 

School,  Mount  Heniion,  Mass. 

VIII    BIBLE     STUDY     FOR     PERSONAL 

SPIRITUAL   GROWTH 185 

John  R.  Mott,  LL.D. 

General  Secretary   World's  Student  Christian 

Federation 

IX    HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  BIBLE    REAL     203 

Henry  Churchill  King,  LL.D. 

President  of  Oberlin  College 


THE    BIBLE 

IN 

THE   WORLD    OF    TODAY 


CLARENCE   A.    BARBOUR 

Upon  whatever  questions  believers  in  the  Hv- 
ing  and  true  God  differ,  they  are  alike  in  their 
allegiance,  real  or  professed,  to  a  book  which  we 
call  the  Bible,  or  the  Book.  Even  for  those  who 
do  not  accept  its  teachings,  it  is  the  Book,  for  no 
other  book  has  such  a  history.  In  its  collected 
form,  practically  as  we  have  it  today,  it  has  ex- 
isted for  nearly  eighteen  hundred  years,  while 
some  portions  of  it  go  back  into  far  greater  re- 
moteness of  time. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  oppose  the  idea  which 
has  been  held  by  some,  that  our  Bible,  with  cover 
and  clasp  complete,  has,  as  it  were,  been  dropped 
down  from  heaven,  like  the  image  of  the  goddess 
Diana  in  Ephesus  of  old ;  or  to  oppose  the  idea 
that  the  Bible  is  too  sacred  a  book  to  be  subjected 
to  critical  inquiry.  Yet  the  Revised  Version  of 
the  Bible  actually  met  with  strenuous  opposition, 
on  the  ground  that  a  new  book  was  attempting 
to  supersede  the  venerable  volume  which  in  the 
course  of  the  years  had  come  to  be  regarded  by 
some  as,  word  for  word  and  punctuation  point 


2  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

for  punctuation  point,  the  veritable  written  reve- 
lation of  God.  It  is  not  necessary  to  combat 
any  such  conception. 

God's  Various  Revelations  of  Himself. 

God  has  many  ways  of  revealing  Himself. 
There  is  some  revelation  of  Him  in  nature.  I 
am  sorry  for  one  who  does  not  find  God  in  the 
sea,  whether  it  lies  gently  breathing,  like  a  maiden 
asleep,  under  the  summer  sun  and  zephyr,  or 
whether  its  giant  billows,  in  spume  of  spray  and 
thunder-crash  of  power,  hurl  themselves  on  rocky 
cliffs.  There  is  hardly  a  place  in  the  world 
where  one  feels  in  such  close  communion  with 
God  as  when,  at  sea,  the  plain  of  the  ocean  meets 
the  dome  of  the  sky  in  unbroken  circle,  with 
nothing  to  mar  the  infinite  beauty  of  it  all.  He 
is  an  object  for  pity  who  can  see  nothing  of 
God  in  mountain,  in  forest,  in  lake  and  stream. 
But  our  finding  of  God  in  nature  is  largely  our 
reading  of  God  into  nature.  We  cannot  separate 
ourselves  now  from  that  vastly  broader  and 
deeper  revelation  of  Himself  that  He  has  given. 
We  see  Him  in  nature  so  plainly  because  we  have 
long  walked  in  the  brighter  light  of  His  other 
revelations  of  Himself. 

On  the  fields  of  Bethlehem  long  ago  there  was 
a  wondrous  vision  which  came  to  shepherds  abid- 
ing in  the  field.  The  Word  had  come,  the  Word 
which  had  been  in  the  beginning  with  God,  the 
Word  which  was  God  Himself.     His  life  was 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR   BIBLE  3 

to  be  the  light  of  men,  shining  in  the  darkness, 
to  give  to  men  knowledge  of  Him  who  was  and 
is  the  Light. 

But  we  do  not  see  that  Word,  as  they  saw  Him 
of  old  who  walked  in  the  roads  and  lanes  of 
Palestine.  The  Word,  the  Lord  Christ,  went 
from  the  earth  in  His  bodily  presence  and  is 
with  us  no  more.  The  revelation  of  God  which 
we  have  in  visible  form  is  the  written  Word, 
through  which,  in  the  main,  is  given  to  us  the 
expression  of  the  will  of  God  for  our  instruction 
and  our  guidance.  Whence  came  this  Bible  of 
ours,  as  now  found  in  the  Revised  Version,  bear- 
ing date  of  May  5,  1885,  when  the  complete 
Revision  was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  people? 

The  original  manuscripts  are  lost.  The  church 
in  the  early  days  after  Christ  had  these.  What 
we  call  the  Epistles  of  the  apostle  Paul  were 
actually  letters,  written  letters,  sent  to  the 
churches  and  read.  The  four  Gospels  were  actual 
historical  treatises,  written  and  read.  Doubtless 
for  some  time  after  the  death  of  Christ  His 
teaching  and  life  were  orally  transmitted  from 
mouth  to  ear,  but  the  time  came  when  they  must 
be  preserved  in  more  permanent  form,  and  the 
Gospels  were  written.  The  early  church  had 
manuscripts  of  the  Hebrew  rolls  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, including  the  translation  called  the  Septua- 
gint,  or  version  of  the  Seventy,  called  such  from 
an  old  tradition  of  its  having  been  prepared  by 
seventy  learned  Jews  of  Alexandria.     That  ver- 


4  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD   TODAY 

sion  was  in  Greek,  Greek  being  the  language  most 
widely  known  at  the  time.  That  version,  dating 
from  about  280  years  before  Christ,  was  ordi- 
narily used  by  the  evangelists  and  the  apostles, 
and  doubtless  Jesus  Himself  had  access  to  the 
Septuagint.  These  writings  of  course  were  all 
in  manuscript,  written  by  hand.  When  copies 
were  needed,  each  had  to  be  written  out,  letter 
by  letter,  at  great  expense  of  time  and  trouble. 

Versions  of  the  Bible,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
began  to  be  soon  after  the  year  200  a.  d.,  save 
only  the  Septuagint,  which,  as  has  already  been 
said,  goes  back  more  than  four  hundred  years 
more.  Upon  the  Latin,  the  Syriac,  the  Egyptian, 
the  Gothic,  and  other  versions  we  must  not  now 
pause. 

Of  the  Vulgate,  the  Latin  Bible,  which  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  was  the  basis  of 
the  Scriptures  of  Western  Europe  and  of  the 
Rhemish  and  Douay  versions  of  the  Bible,  which 
are  now  used  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  we 
will  later  speak  at  some  length. 

The  Bibles  which  immediately  preceded  the 
Authorized  Version  are  based  both  upon  the  Vul- 
gate and  upon  the  existing  Greek  manuscripts 
which  had  been  lately  discovered  and  to  which 
St.  Jerome  had  not  access.  The  Revised  Version 
had  not  only  the  use  of  the  Vulgate,  together 
with  all  the  translations  which  had  been  made 
from  it,  but  it  had  existing  and  more  lately  dis- 
covered manuscripts,  in  Hebrew  and  in  Greek, 


HOW  WE   GOT  OUR  BIBLE  5 

one  of  the  most  important  of  which  —  the  Sinaitic 
manuscript  —  had  been  fully  brought  to  light 
within  sixty  years.  Moreover,  the  scholars  of 
these  later  days  are  much  better  able  to  grapple 
with  the  difficulties  and  to  interpret  the  shades 
of  meaning  of  the  original  languages.  Upon  no 
previous  revision  have  so  many  scholars  been 
engaged ;  in  no  previous  revision  have  such  pre- 
cautions been  taken  against  accident  or  oversight, 
or  against  any  bias  that  might  arise  from  ecclesi- 
astical adherence.  It  is  the  ripe  product  of  all 
the  light  and  all  the  scholarship  which  the  ages 
have  produced,  brought  to  bear  upon  every  avail- 
able source  of  information,  to  bring  us  back  as 
closely  as  possible  to  the  exact  body  of  teaching 
which  God  designed  as  the  revelation  of  His 
nature  and  His  will. 

Writings  upon  Stone. 

In  our  thought  of  the  sources  from  which  our 
present  written  Bible  has  been  derived,  we  shall 
speak  first  of  writings  upon  stone. 

We  could  wish  that  we  had  the  original  stone 
tables  upon  which  the  Ten  Commandments  were 
written  on  Mount  Sinai  and  given  into  the  care 
of  Moses.  These  have  long  since  disappeared, 
but  we  have  writings  on  stone,  of  great  antiquity 
and  of  exceeding  importance. 

In  the  city  of  Paris  its  most  important  build- 
ing, both  architecturally  and  on  account  of  its 
treasures  of  art  and  learning,  is  the  Louvre,  a  vast 


6  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Structure,  covering  an  area  of  forty-eight  acres. 
Through  every  change  of  government  since  the 
days  of  Napoleon  I.  the  collections  of  this  build- 
ing have  been  enriched,  until  they  are  practically 
inexhaustible.  Among  the  numberless  possessions 
of  the  Louvre,  hardly  one  is  of  greater  impor- 
tance than  the  Moabite  Stone,  its  inscription  writ- 
ten in  the  ancient  Phoenician,  of  which  there  are 
but  few  examples  left.  It  was  discovered  in 
1868  at  Dibon  in  Moab,  east  of  the  Dead  Sea. 
It  bears  an  inscription  of  Mesha,  king  of  Moab, 
who  is  mentioned  in  Second  Kings  3 : 4.  Un- 
doubtedly the  inscription  is  as  old  as  the  ninth 
century  before  Christ,  and  is  the  oldest  existing 
specimen  of  the  ancestral  Phoenician  language. 

In  the  city  of  London  is  another  stone,  not  quite 
so  ancient,  and  yet  of  peculiar  interest  and  im- 
portance in  the  story  of  the  translation  of  ancient 
languages,  and  not  without  its  bearing  upon  the 
text  of  Scripture.  In  the  British  Museum,  per- 
haps unequaled  in  the  world  as  a  repository  of 
treasures  in  literature  and  archaeology,  is  the 
famous  Rosetta  Stone,  which  opened  the  meaning 
of  Egyptian  hieroglyphs.  It  is  a  large  slab  of 
black  basalt,  found  in  the  year  1799  by  a  French 
engineer  in  the  trenches  on  Fort  St.  Julien  near 
Rosetta,  in  Egypt.  It  contains  an  inscription  in 
three  languages.  Beginning  from  the  top,  there 
are  fourteen  lines  of  hieroglyphic  text,  the  ecclesi- 
astical language  of  Egypt,  then  thirty-two  lines 
of  the  ordinary  Egyptian,  then  fifty-four  lines  of 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  7 

Greek.  The  reading  of  the  Greek  reveals  the 
fact  that  the  inscription  on  the  stone  was  a  repe- 
tition of  the  same  proclamation  in  three  languages, 
and  hence  the  key  to  the  hieroglyphs  of  Egypt 
was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  world  of  scholar- 
ship. The  decree  upon  the  stone  is  one  issued  by 
the  Egyptian  priesthood  to  commemorate  the 
beneficent  deeds  of  Ptolemy  V. 

The  deciphering  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphs  has 
been  of  exceeding  value  in  the  way  of  corrobora- 
tion of  the  Scripture  record.  For  example,  on  the 
south  wall  of  the  court  of  Shishonk,  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Karnak,  Egypt,  are  to  be  seen  representa- 
tions of  King  Shishak  returning  in  triumph  from 
a  war.  His  captives,  having  their  hands  tied 
behind  them  and  ropes  around  their  necks,  are 
kneeHng  before  him.  The  faces  are  distinctly 
Jewish,  and  the  inscription  means  Judah-Melek, 
King  of  Judah.  We  know  that  Judah-Melek  was 
Rehoboam,  whose  defeat  by  Shishak  is  recorded 
in  Kings  and  Chronicles.  Thus  six  hundred  miles 
up  the  Nile  is  another  proof  of  the  inspiration  and 
truthful  record  of  the  Word  of  God.  God  has 
not  left  Himself  without  a  witness.  The  spade 
of  the  archaeologist,  the  brain  and  the  linguistic 
achievements  of  translators,  are  alike  witnesses 
of  His  glory  and  His  truth. 

Ancient  Manuscripts  in  the  Original  Languages 

We  now  come  to  ancient  manuscripts  in  the 
original  languages.     We  are  all  well  aware  that 


8  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  Old  Testament,  with  some  few  exceptions,  is 
written  in  Hebrew,  the  language  of  the  Jews, 
a  branch  of  the  great  Semitic  family  of  languages, 
so  called  because  the  nations  to  which  they  be- 
longed were  considered  to  be  chiefly  descendants 
of  Shem.  The  Syriac  and  Arabic  represent  other 
branches  of  the  same  great  family,  and  increasing 
knowledge  of  them  in  recent  days  has  thrown 
much  light  upon  the  language  of  the  Old 
Testament. 

Most  monasteries  had  their  scriptoria,  or 
writing-rooms,  attached  to  their  libraries,  and 
there  through  the  quiet  hours  the  copyists  wrought 
at  their  task.  Their  work  was  deemed  to  be  of  a 
sacred  character  and  it  was  done  with  the  utmost 
reverence.  Many  of  the  copyists  v/ere  men  who 
had  had  their  training  in  Jewish  schools,  and 
after  their  conversion  to  Christianity  found  their 
best  employment  in  transcribing  the  Epistles  and 
other  books  meant  for  the  use  of  the  churches. 
Many  of  these  early  manuscripts  are  beautifully 
illuminated,  written  with  wonderful  clearness  and 
care.  Special  privileges  were  granted  to  those 
whose  hands  must  be  kept  delicate  for  their  ex- 
acting tasks,  and  they  were  often  excused  from 
the  coarser  employments  of  hewing  wood,  draw- 
ing water,  or  planting  the  gardens  of  the  con- 
vents. It  is  pathetic  to  read  in  these  later  days 
of  the  pious  care  and  affection  with  which  the 
work  was  done  and  its  results  treasured,  and  no 
one  can  look  at  the  stained  and  tattered  pages 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  9 

of  the  oldest  manuscripts,  or  turn  the  leaves  of 
daintily  and  splendidly  illuminated  Bibles,  with- 
out having  the  mental  picture  rise  before  him  of 
those  quiet  scriptoria,  where  the  work  was  a  labor 
of  love  and  where  the  divine  blessing  was  often 
invoked  upon  every  stroke  of  the  pen  and  brush. 
Longfellow,  in  his  "  Golden  Legend,"  and  Wal- 
lace, in  the  poem  of  "  The  Blessed  Hand,"  have 
immortalized  this  work. 

The  New  Testament,  it  need  hardly  be  said, 
is  written  in  Greek,  and,  as  is  the  case  with  the 
Hebrew,  the  present  condition  of  the  Greek  text 
has  been  an  evolution.  We  have  what  we  have 
today  because  of  the  incredible  labors  of  reverent 
scholars  for  many  years.  Ours  is  the  heritage 
of  long  ages  of  toil.  We  may  speak  briefly  of 
the  three  most  ancient  manuscripts,  all  of  which 
are  in  Greek. 

The  Alexandrine  Manuscript. 

In  the  British  Museum  there  is  a  priceless 
manuscript,  the  Alexandrine,  the  first  of  all  the 
great  manuscripts  which  was  critically  studied 
and  applied  to  the  correction  of  the  text  of 
Scripture.  It  was  presented  to  Charles  I.  of 
England  in  1628  by  the  patriarchs  of  Constanti- 
nople, who  brought  it  from  Egypt  when  the 
British  Museum  was  established  in  1753.  It 
was  sent  to  this  repository  from  the  royal  col- 
lection and  it  may  be  seen  there  today,  pre- 
served in  a  glass  case,  no  hand  allowed  to  touch 


lO        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

it  except  in  rare  instances  and  for  the  purpose  of 
scholarly  investigation.  It  is  in  four  volumes. 
As  to  the  exact  origin  of  the  manuscript  nothing 
can  be  determined  with  positiveness,  except  that 
it  is  Egyptian  and  probably  Alexandrian.  The 
vellum  upon  which  the  writing  is  placed  is  well 
preserved,  though  in  many  places  age  has  crum- 
bled the  leaves.  The  letters  of  the  text  are  large 
and  comparatively  clear.  There  are  no  spaces 
between  the  words,  no  accents  or  breathings,  and 
but  few  instances  of  punctuation  or  abbreviation. 
This  is  the  oldest  manuscript  with  uncial,  or 
capital  letters,  which  we  have  at  first  hand. 

The  Vatican  Manuscript. 

The  second  of  these  manuscripts  is  the  Vatican 
manuscript,  which  is  in  the  Vatican  library  at 
Rome. 

That  library  is  not  as  often  visited  as  are  the 
rooms  in  the  same  vast  structure  crowded  with 
masterpieces  of  sculpture  and  painting,  the  col- 
lection of  sculpture  unsurpassed.  The  number 
and  value  of  the  manuscripts  contained  in  this 
library  surpass  those  of  any  other  collection  in 
the  world.  The  most  priceless  treasure  in  the 
library  is  the  Codex  Vaticanus,  one  of  the  earliest 
and  most  valuable  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  in 
existence.  It  is  closely  guarded  and  is  held  be- 
yond price.  The  first  catalogue  of  the  Vatican 
library  was  issued  in  1475,  and  this  manuscript 
appears  in  the  catalogue  of  that  date.    The  library 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  ii 

was  founded  in  1448,  hence  the  Vatican  manu- 
script may  be  fairly  considered  to  have  been  one 
of  the  original  volumes  of  the  collection.  This, 
the  most  valuable  manuscript  of  the  Bible,  is, 
and  has  been  through  the  ages,  in  the  possession 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

Until  recently  it  has  been  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  that  scholars  gained  access  to  the  Vati- 
can manuscript.  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  however,  pur- 
sued a  more  liberal  policy  than  did  some  of  his 
predecessors,  and  a  splendid  facsimile  edition 
by  prototype  was  made  and  may  be  seen  in  many 
of  the  well-equipped  libraries  of  Europe  and 
America.  There  are  comparatively  few  of  them 
in  America.  It  was  my  pleasure  to  see  and  to 
handle  one  of  these  in  the  magnificent  library 
of  the  late  James  G.  Batterson  of  Hartford,  a 
gift  to  him  from  Rome  as  a  recognition  of  dis- 
tinguished attainment  and  service.  It  may  not 
be  generally  known  that  Mr.  Batterson,  beside 
being  one  of  the  eminent  business  men  of  New 
England  during  his  lifetime,  was  a  noted  Greek 
scholar.  The  study  of  Greek  was  to  him  his 
principal  recreation,  and  the  early  morning  hours 
usually  found  him  engrossed  in  his  library. 

Before  this  facsimile  edition  appeared,  many 
attempts  had  been  made  to  study  the  precious 
manuscript.  The  famous  German  scholar,  to 
whom  we  shall  later  refer,  Dr.  Tischendorf,  tried 
to  get  the  use  of  the  manuscript  in  his  critical 
work,  in  1843,  ^^^  was  finally  successful  in  gain- 


12        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ing  six  hours  with  it.  Twenty-three  years  later, 
after  he  had  discovered  and  pubHshed  the  Sinaitic 
manuscript  and  hence  was  the  most  noted  au- 
thority on  manuscripts  in  the  world,  he  was  at 
last  successful  in  having  the  use  of  the  Vatican 
manuscript  in  a  private  room  off  the  library  and 
worked  upon  a  transcription  for  forty-two  hours. 
In  1808  the  papal  dominions  became  tem- 
porarily a  part  of  the  French  Empire  and 
Napoleon  I.  caused  many  of  the  treasures  of  the 
Roman  museums  and  libraries  to  be  carried  to 
Paris.  Among  them  was  this  priceless  manu- 
script. There  it  might  have  been  studied  freely 
had  anybody  known  enough  to  do  so.  But  com- 
petent critics  were  not  ready.  When  Napoleon 
was  overthrown  at  Waterloo  in  181 5,  the  manu- 
script, with  many  other  treasures,  was  returned 
to  Rome. 

The  Sinaitic  Manuscript. 

The  third  of  these  priceless  manuscripts  is  in 
some  respects  the  most  noted  of  all,  because  of 
the  romantic  manner  in  which  it  came  into  the 
possession  of  the  world  of  scholarship.  It  is 
known  as  the  Sinaitic  manuscript  and  is  now 
in  the  National  Library  in  St.  Petersburg.  It 
has  a  romantic  and  singularly  interesting  story. 

The  discoverer  of  the  Sinaitic  manuscript  was 
Lobegott  Friedrich  Constantin  Tischendorf,  a 
famous  German  scholar,  to  whom  we  owe  a  debt 
that  we  can  never  pay.    The  name  Lobegott,  or 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  13 

Praise  God,  was  given  to  him  by  his  mother,  who 
had  a  presentiment  that  her  child  would  be  born 
blind.  When  he  was  found  to  have  good  eyes,  her 
thankful  heart  insisted  that  his  name  should  com- 
memorate the  goodness  of  God.  Those  eyes  be- 
came the  working  tools  of  the  first  scholar  of  the 
world  in  the  determining  of  the  text  of  Scripture. 

For  years  Tischendorf  gave  his  life  to  the 
discovery  and  study  of  the  ancient  manuscripts 
of  the  Bible,  using  the  best  resources  of  Europe 
in  his  day  and  also  traveling  to  the  libraries 
of  the  East.  He  explored  the  recesses  of  Greek, 
Syrian  and  Armenian  monasteries.  He  searched 
through  Alexandria  and  Cairo,  but  found  noth- 
ing to  especially  reward  his  eager  search.  Guided, 
as  it  would  seem,  by  the  Spirit  of  the  God  of 
truth,  he  set  out  on  the  hard  journey  through  the 
Sinaitic  peninsula,  on  which  stands  Mount  Sinai, 
where  the  tables  of  the  law  were  given  to  Moses. 
Near  the  base  of  that  mountain  is  the  Convent 
of  St.  Catherine,  dating  from  the  time  of  Jus- 
tinian. Here  through  many  centuries  the  brother- 
hood of  monks  had  devoted  itself  to  worship  and 
quiet  study  and  a  rich  library  had  grown  up. 
The  monks,  however,  seemed  strangely  ignorant 
of  some  of  the  manuscript  treasures  within  their 
walls. 

Dr.  Tischendorf  arrived  at  St.  Catherine's  on 
May  24,  1844.  He  was  allowed  free  access  to 
the  library,  which  was  rich  in  manuscripts,  but 
for  a  time  it  seemed  that  his  researches  would  be 


14        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

unrewarded  by  any  discovery  of  special  value. 
At  length  his  eye  fell  upon  a  large  basketful  of 
old  parchments,  waiting  to  serve  as  kindling  when 
the  next  fire  should  be  lighted.  Two  basketfuls 
of  similar  fragments  had  already  been  employed 
for  that  purpose.  As  Tischendorf  turned  over 
the  pieces  he  found  that  there  were  a  number  of 
leaves  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Greek,  which 
bore  evidence  of  being  more  ancient  than  any  he 
had  ever  seen.  His  quick  exclamation  and  trem- 
bling hands  aroused  the  cupidity  of  the  monks, 
for  they  were  led  to  suspect  that  these  manu- 
scripts had  a  value  of  which  they  had  no  knowl- 
edge. Tischendorf  was  allowed  to  take  a  small 
portion  of  the  fragments,  forty-three  leaves,  but 
no  persuasion  of  his  could  induce  the  monks  to 
part  with  the  remainder,  which  only  a  few  mo- 
ments before  they  had  been  ready  to  burn.  These 
leaves  were  borne  to  Leipzig,  and  there  deposited 
in  the  University  library.  Tischendorf  did  not 
tell  where  he  had  found  the  fragments,  for  he 
had  by  no  means  given  up  hope  of  eventually 
securing  the  remainder.  By  means  of  an  in- 
fluential friend  at  the  court  of  Egypt  he  en- 
deavored to  procure  the  entire  manuscript,  so 
far  as  it  could  be  found,  but  without  success. 
His  friend  wrote :  "  The  monks  of  the  convent, 
since  your  departure,  have  learned  the  value  of 
the  parchments  and  will  not  part  with  them  at 
any  price."  Tischendorf  paid  another  visit  to 
Mount  Sinai  in  1853  and  was  cordially  welcomed, 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  15 

but   could   not   find   the   slightest   trace   of   the 
longed-for  manuscript. 

In  1859  he  came  to  St.  Catherine's,  this  time 
with  a  formidable  open  sesame.  The  convent  was 
under  the  Greek  Church;  the  Czar  of  Russia  is 
the  head  of  that  church.  This  time  he  came  with 
the  imperial  command  to  produce  the  manuscript. 
The  familiar  rooms  of  the  library  were  thrown 
open  to  him.  The  custodian  of  the  books  showed 
him  every  courtesy.  Many  invaluable  manu- 
scripts, some  of  which  he  had  not  seen  in  his 
previous  visits,  were  put  into  his  hands,  but  no- 
where was  the  one  treasure  he  desired,  and  every 
inquiry  was  met  with  sincere  denials  of  its  ex- 
istence in  the  monastery.  The  German  scholar 
was  forced  to  conclude  that  it  had  either  been 
destroyed  or  removed  to  some  other  library,  and 
he  was  about  to  take  his  departure.  The  very 
evening  before  he  was  to  leave  he  was  walking 
in  the  garden  with  the  steward,  and  as  they 
returned  the  monk  invited  him  into  his  cell  to 
take  some  refreshment.  Scarcely  had  they  en- 
tered the  cell,  when,  resuming  his  former  con- 
versation, the  monk  said,  "  I,  too,  have  a  copy  of 
that  Septuagint."  So  saying,  he  took  down  a 
bulky  bundle  wrapped  in  red  cloth  and  laid  it 
on  the  table.  The  parcel  was  opened  and 
Tischendorf,  to  his  amazement,  found  not  only 
the  fragments  that  he  had  seen  fifteen  years  be- 
fore, but  also  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  New  Testament  complete,  and  some  of  the 


l6        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

apocalyptic  books.  He  asked,  in  a  careless  way, 
for  permission  to  look  it  over  in  his  bedroom, 
and  there,  he  says,  "  I  gave  way  to  my  transports 
of  joy.  I  knew  that  I  held  in  my  hand  one  of 
the  most  precious  biblical  treasures  in  existence, 
a  document  whose  age  and  importance  exceeded 
that  of  any  I  had  ever  seen  after  twenty  years' 
study  of  the  subject." 

Through  the  Czar's  influence  and  will  he  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the  precious  manuscript, 
which  now  finds  its  home  in  the  library  of  St. 
Petersburg,  the  greatest  treasure  in  the  possession 
of  the  Greek  Church. 

There  are  many  other  manuscripts  of  impor- 
tance and  usefulness,  but  none  to  compare  with 
the  three  of  which  we  have  spoken.  Some  of 
the  other  manuscripts  are  Palimpsests,  where 
under  the  straggling  writing  are  seen  faint,  faded 
lines  of  old  uncial  letters.  Parchment  was  very 
expensive.  For  that  reason  scribes  sometimes 
used  old  parchments,  which  had  been  used  be- 
fore, and  by  careful  scraping  and  erasing  of  the 
old  letters,  the  skin  was  made  tolerably  fit  for 
use  again.  In  many  cases  the  writing  thus  blotted 
out  was  of  much  greater  value  than  that  which 
replaced  it.  In  process  of  time  the  action  of 
the  atmosphere  brought  out  the  words  of  the 
old  text  with  more  or  less  clearness,  so  that  the 
one  parchment  in  many  cases  bears  two  texts, 
the  one  written  over  the  other,  and  both  to  be 
deciphered  with  difficulty. 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  17 

Among  the  best  known  manuscripts,  apart 
from  the  Alexandrine,  the  Vatican  and  the 
Sinaitic,  are  the  Codex  Ephraem,  in  the  royal 
library  at  Paris,  the  Codex  Bezae,  in  the  library 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  the  Rossanensis 
manuscript,  found  in  1879  in  Rossano,  Italy,  and 
the  Codex  Purpureus,  the  bulk  of  which  was 
found  in  the  monastery  of  St.  John  in  the  island 
of  Patmos  in  the  ^gean  Sea. 

We  now  come  to  ancient  versions  in  other 
tongues  than  the  Greek  and  Hebrew,  upon  only 
one  of  which  we  can  dwell  at  any  length,  though 
the  Syriac  and  Egyptian  versions  are  eminently 
worthy  of  extended  attention. 

The  Vulgate  of  St.  Jerome. 

Of  all  the  translations  in  tongues  other  than 
the  Greek  and  Hebrew,  the  most  interesting  is 
the  Vulgate,  written  in  the  Latin  tongue,  a  ver- 
sion which,  as  has  already  been  said,  is  the  source 
of  the  Rhemish  and  Douay  versions  used  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  of  today.  There  were 
already  Latin  Bibles  in  existence,  and  they  con- 
tained so  many  variations  that  the  need  of  some 
kind  of  revision  began  to  be  very  keenly  felt. 
When  the  leaders  of  the  Latin-speaking  churches 
were  looking  about  for  some  one  to  do  this  work, 
attention  was  called  to  one  whose  high  repu- 
tation pointed  him  out  as  the  very  man.  Eusebius 
Hieronymus,  known  to  us  as  St.  Jerome,  was 
a  man  of  great  resource,  a  most  industrious  and 


l8        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

energetic  worker,  an  able  and  accomplished 
scholar.  He  was  an  adept  in  all  the  learning  of 
the  day.  He  had  access  to  Hebrew  manuscripts 
probably  centuries  older  than  the  time  of  our 
Lord,  and  he  produced  the  most  valuable  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  that  was  ever  made,  up  to 
the  issuing  of  the  Authorized  Version  of  Scrip- 
ture. No  other  work  has  had  such  an  influence 
in  the  history  of  the  Bible. 

In  a  cave,  called  the  Cave  of  St.  Jerome,  close 
to  the  Sacred  Grotto  beneath  the  Church  of  the 
Nativity  in  Bethlehem,  St.  Jerome  spent  thirty 
years  of  his  Hfe.  His  labors  were  finished  and 
the  Vulgate  appeared  about  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century  and  was  received  with  a  storm  of  oppo- 
sition. It  was  called  revolutionary,  heretical.  It 
was  held  to  be  an  impious  tampering  with  the 
inspired  Word  of  God.  For  centuries  it  was  re- 
jected and  condemned,  and  everything  which 
ignorant  bigotry  could  suggest  was  used  to  bring 
it  into  disrepute.  It  was  a  sad  story,  but  it  does 
not  stand  alone,  for  other  brave  men  have  worn 
out  their  lives  in  great  achievements  and  have 
seen  their  work  banned  and  proscribed  to  their 
dying  day. 

But  St.  Jerome  was  to  be  vindicated  at  last. 
At  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  when  the 
injured  old  scholar  had  been  a  thousand  years 
dead,  men  had  grown  attached  to  the  Vulgate. 
In  fact,  they  seem  almost  to  have  forgotten  that 
it  was   only  a  translation.     When  errors   were 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  19 

pointed  out,  the  idea  of  correcting  them  by  means 
of  the  old  manuscripts  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  was 
quite  resented.  The  Latin  Vulgate  received  the 
seal  of  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  It  Was  accepted  as  final  and  authentic, 
and  it  was  decreed  that  it  was  the  standard  ver- 
sion to  which  appeal  must  be  made  in  all  matters 
of  controversy.  Dean  Milman  says :  "  Jerome's 
Bible  is  a  wonderful  work,  still  more  as  achieved 
by  one  man,  and  that  by  a  Western  Christian, 
even  with  all  the  advantages  of  study  and  resi- 
dence in  the  East.  It  almost  created  a  new 
language.  .  .  .  The  Vulgate  was  even  more  per- 
haps than  the  papal  power  the  foundation  of 
Latin  Christianity.  ...  It  was  in  his  cell  at 
Bethlehem,  meditating  and  completing  the  Vul- 
gate, that  Jerome  fixed  for  centuries  the  domin- 
ion of  Christianity  over  the  mind  of  man." 

The  Early  Christian  Fathers. 

We  now  come  to  the  question  of  quotations 
from  Scripture  in  the  writings  of  the  early 
Christian  fathers.  The  quantity  of  these  writings 
is  very  great,  but  they  have  been  only  imper- 
fectly examined.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
Scripture  quotations  are  often  fragmentary  and 
sometimes  made  loosely  from  memory,  they  are 
yet  of  great  value  in  determining  the  text  of 
ancient  Bibles,  some  of  them  going  back  to  the 
days  of  the  original  New  Testament  writings. 

A  most  interesting  table,  which  can  be  found 


30        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

in  almost  any  of  the  standard  works  upon  the 
origins  of  Scripture,  will  show  the  temporal  re- 
lation between  the  best  known  of  these  pioneers 
of  the  Christian  Church.  Among  the  most  im- 
portant of  them  for  our  purpose  are  Origen, 
Irenseus  and  Polycarp.  Among  other  notable 
leaders  of  the  Church  in  those  early  days  were 
Eusebius,  living  from  about  260  to  339  a.  d.,  in 
whose  writings  we  find  direct  allusions  to  or 
quotations  from  every  one  of  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
James,  Second  Peter,  Second  John,  Third  John 
and  Jude ;  and  Ignatius,  who  died  before  150  a.  d., 
in  whose  writings  we  find  allusions  to  or  quo- 
tations from  Matthew,  John,  First  Corinthians, 
Ephesians,  Philippians,  First  Thessalonians,  and 
Philemon. 

Origen  w^s  a  discriminating  student  and  edi- 
tor of  the  Septuagint,  and  his  labors  upon  the 
text  of  the  New  Testament  were  those  of  a  great 
scholar.  His  work  was  begun  in  Caesarea  and 
finished  in  Tyre.  He  undertook  the  enormous 
labor  of  comparing  the  Greek  text,  then  gen- 
erally accepted,  with  the  Hebrew  and  other  Greek 
translations,  collecting  for  the  purpose  manu- 
scripts from  every  known  source. 

Going  back  toward  the  time  of  Christ,  we  find 
Irenaeus,  who  was  Bishop  of  Lyons  in  Gaul. 
His  bishopric  extended  from  the  time  of  the 
persecution  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  177  a.  d.,  to 
his  own  martyrdom  under  Septimius  Severus  in 


HOW  WE   GOT  OUR  BIBLE  21 

202  A.  D.  In  his  writings  we  find  reference  to 
the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts,  twelve  of  the  letters 
of  Paul,  First  Peter,  First  and  Second  John,  and 
Revelation,  which  last  he  expressly  ascribes  to 
John  the  beloved  disciple.  See  how  large  a  part 
of  the  New!  Testament  is  directly  referred  to  in 
the  writings  of  one  who  died  in  the  year  202. 
It  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  read  his  own  ac- 
count of  his  interview  with  Polycarp,  of  whom 
he  says,  in  a  letter :  "  I  can  recall  the  very  place 
where  the  blessed  Polycarp  used  to  sit  and  teach, 
his  going  out  and  his  coming  in,  his  mode  of 
life,  his  appearance,  the  style  of  his  address  to 
the  people,  his  familiar  intercourse  with  St.  John 
and  with  the  rest  of  those  who  had  seen  the  Lord, 
and  how  he  remembered  their  sayings.  What- 
ever he  had  heard  from  them  concerning  our 
Lord,  His  miracles  and  mode  of  teaching,  Poly- 
carp, being  instructed  by  those  who  were  eye- 
witnesses of  the  Word,  recounted  in  strict  agree- 
ment with  the  Scriptures." 

And  this  Polycarp,  who  was  so  distinctly  in 
the  personal  memory  of  Irenseus,  was  a  pupil  of 
the  apostle  John,  whose  life  and  writings  form 
a  link  between  the  apostolic  days  and  the  second 
century.  Polycarp,  then  an  old,  old  man,  was 
put  to  death  for  his  faith  in  the  persecution  under 
Marcus  Aurelius  and  Lucius  Verus.  We  are 
told  that  the  martyr  laid  aside  his  garments  and 
calmly  took  his  place  in  the  midst  of  the  fagots 
prepared  for  him.     When  they  would  have  se- 


22        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

cured  him  with  nails  to  the  stake  he  said,  "  Let 
me  remain  as  I  am,  for  He  that  hath  enabled  me 
to  brave  the  fire  will  so  constrain  me  that  with- 
out fastening  me  with  nails  I  shall  unmoved  en- 
dure its  fierceness."  And  so  he  passed  away. 
The  cypress  tree  above  his  alleged  tomb  stands 
lonely  against  the  sky  in  Smyrna.  In  one  letter 
of  Polycarp,  and  that  a  short  one,  there  are  forty 
clear  allusions  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, some  of  the  allusions  exceedingly  valuable 
for  critical  purposes.  Do  not  forget  that  he  was 
the  contemporary  of  the  apostle  John. 

The  Bible  of  Wiclif. 

Now,  perforce,  we  must  hasten  to  the  close, 
with  a  simple  reference  to  English  Versions,  — 
the  Bible  of  Wiclif,  the  Bible  of  Tyndale,  the 
Authorized  or  St.  James  Version  and  the  Re- 
vision. 

John  WicHf  lived  from  1324  to  1384  A.  d.  In 
the  little  English  village  of  Lutterworth,  a  small 
market  town  in  the  neighborhood  of  Leicester, 
may  be  seen  a  simple  village  church.  In  that 
church  is  the  very  pulpit  from  which  Wiclif 
preached.  In  the  vestry  is  the  old  oak  chair  in 
which,  according  to  the  tradition  of  the  place, 
he  died.  It  wias  a  great  life  which  closed  in  that 
little  English  village,  the  life  of  a  man  whose 
extraordinary  abilities  were  fully  acknowledged 
during  his  Hfetime.  Wiclif  was  not  merely  a 
theologian,   he  was  widely  acquainted  with  the 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  23 

science  of  his  day.  He  was  entirely  familiar 
w*ith  everything  which  had  been  discovered  up 
to  his  time  in  mathematics,  in  chemistry,  in  natu- 
ral history,  beside  his  ample  knowledge  in  his 
own  distinctive  branches  of  scholarship.  He 
had  all  the  learning  and  quickness  of  mind  re- 
quired for  debate  with  the  greatest  scholars  of 
the  day,  and  he  did  debate  with  them,  as  they 
knew  to  their  cost.  He  contributed  more  than 
any  other  man  to  the  great  Reformation  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and  its  severance  from  the 
Church  of  Rome  a  century  and  a  half  later. 
Macaulay  calls  Wiclif  the  first,  and  perhaps  the 
greatest,  of  the  reformers. 

During  the  latter  years  of  Wiclifs  life  he 
accomplished  his  greatest  work,  the  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  the  English  tongue.  There 
had  been  partial  translations  of  Scripture  from 
the  Latin  into  the  English.  The  Gospel  of  John 
was  translated  into  the  Anglo-Saxon  by  the  Ven- 
erable Bede  in  the  eighth  century.  The  great 
King  Alfred  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  per- 
sonally engaged  in  translating  a  portion  of  the 
Bible.  There  were  two  rough  translations  of  the 
Gospels  and  of  the  Psalms.  But  John  Wiclif 
was  the  first  to  translate  the  whole  Latin  Bible 
into  English  prose,  and  to  put  it,  without  note 
or  comment,  into  the  hands  of  his  countrymen. 
What  he  said  regarding  the  placing  of  the  Bible 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  might  be  said  by  any 
man  of  today,  so  far  ahead  of  his  times  he  was : 


24        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

"  The  faith  of  the  church  is  contained  in  the 
Scriptures.  The  more  these  are  known,  then, 
the  better,  and  as  assuredly  as  men  should  under- 
stand the  faith  that  they  profess,  that  faith  should 
be  taught  in  whatever  language  may  be  best 
known  to  them." 

As  a  mere  translation,  Wiclif's  Bible  is  of  only 
secondary  value,  for  it  is  taken  from  the  Latin, 
not  from  the  original  languages  of  Scripture. 
It  is  a  translation  of  the  Vulgate.  The  worth 
of  Wiclif's  version  lies  in  its  English.  It  fixed 
the  language.  It  became  a  ground  of  literature. 
No  other  book  could  have  been  that,  for  the  Book 
alone  came  to  the  people  with  supreme  authority. 

This  man  first  opened  the  Bible  to  our  English 
fathers.  Our  Christian  institutions  and  literature 
of  today  are  saturated  with  the  imperishable  re- 
sults of  his  toil.  As  some  one  has  nobly  said, 
"  It  went  wherever  there  should  be  English  homes, 
to  brighten  and  bless  them ;  wherever  there  should 
be  English  toil,  to  sanctify  it;  wherever  there 
should  be  English  graves,  to  tell  of  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life.  In  one  final  word,  Wiclif's 
translation  of  the  Bible  was,  for  the  English- 
speaking  race  around  the  world,  the  second  resur- 
rection. The  day  of  its  completion  was  the 
Easter  Day  of  the  English  language." 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  25 

The  Bible  of  Tyndale. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  years  passed  since  John 
Wiclif  had  given  to  the  EngHsh  people  the  Bible 
in  their  own  language.  Wiclif's  work  was  done 
a  century  before  William  Caxton  had  set  up  his 
rude  printing  press,  and  the  printing  press  had 
created  a  new  era  in  the  realm  of  letters.  It 
remained  for  William  Tyndale  to  do  his  work 
in  the  giving  of  the  Bible  to  the  people,  not  only 
in  the  English  language,  but  in  printed  form. 

Tyndale  was  the  contemporary  of  Luther, 
Zwingli  and  Erasmus.  He  was  trained  in  Ox- 
ford and  in  Cambridge,  a  man  of  wide  and  deep 
learning.  It  is  evident  that  his  thinking  was 
much  influenced  by  the  writings  of  Erasmus, 
with  whose  praise  all  Europe  was  then  ringing 
and  who  was  in  high  favor  with  those  of  most 
exalted  rank  in  England.  But  Tyndale  thought 
for  himself.  He  was  no  parrot.  We  must  not 
stop  upon  the  story  of  his  life,  fascinating  as 
would  be  the  narration.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
there  came  a  time  when,  in  debate  with  a  certain 
learned  man,  Tyndale  said,  "If  God  spare  my 
life,  ere  many  years  I  will  cause  a  boy  that 
driveth  a  plow  to  know  more  of  the  Scriptures 
than  thou  dost."  His  purpose  became  fixed  to 
translate  the  New  Testament  into  the  English 
language  from  the  original  Greek,  not  from  the 
Latin  Vulgate  as  Wiclif  had  done.  He  soon 
found  that  there  was  no  room  in  London  to 
translate  the  New  Testament,  and  also  that  there 


26        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

was  no  safe  place  to  do  it  in  all  England.  So  in 
1524  he  sailed  to  Hamburg,  never  again  to  set 
foot  on  his  native  land.  The  air  was  freer  in 
Germany,  the  Reformation  had  made  much  more 
progress  there.  In  the  following  year  we  find 
him  in  Cologne,  with  the  sheets  of  the  New 
Testament  in  the  printer's  hands. 

Against  fierce  opposition  and  with  many  trials, 
the  book  began  to  circulate  in  England.  It  had 
a  hard  struggle  against  the  authority  of  the  law, 
the  condemnation  of  the  church,  and  the  wicked- 
ness and  bigotry  of  the  times.  In  spite  of  all 
opposition,  however,  the  book  was  smuggled 
into  the  realm  and  found  its  way  to  the  people, 
and  it  was  everywhere  being  talked  about  and 
read. 

Tyndale  himself  did  not  see  the  day  of  the 
triumph  of  his  work.  He  was  treacherously  ar- 
rested in  Antwerp  and  was  hurried  to  prison. 
For  over  a  year  and  six  months  he  was  in  con- 
finement, **  sitting  cold  and  dark  and  solitary 
in  the  damp  cells  of  Vilvorde  during  the  long 
cheerless  nights  of  winter,  and  earnestly  pleading 
for  the  favor  of  a  light  and  warm  clothing,  and, 
above  all,  of  books  to  comfort  him,"  like  the 
great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  in  the  Mamertine 
dungeon.  On  October  6,  1536,  the  martyrdom 
was  accomplished.  He  was  strangled  to  death 
and  his  body  was  burned  by  the  side  of  the  castle. 
His  work  was  done,  and  his  service  in  the  trans- 
mission of  the  English  Bible,  first  to  those  of  his 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  27 

own  age  and  eventually  to  us  of  a  later  day,  is 
beyond  all  computation. 

The  St.  James  or  Authorized  Version. 

This  year  there  is  being  celebrated  the  three 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  issue  of  the  St. 
James  Version,  or  Authorized  Version,  of  the 
Scriptures.  King  James  I.  of  England  found 
that  he  could  not  prevent  the  incoming  of  the 
Bible,  and  hence  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  de- 
cide to  stamp  that  Bible  with  his  own  coat-of- 
arms.  Fifty-four  learned  men  were  selected  from 
High  Churchmen  and  Puritans,  as  well  as  from 
those  who  represented  a  scholarship  unattached 
to  any  ecclesiastical  party.  The  king  also  sought 
to  secure  the  cooperation  of  every  biblical  scholar 
of  note  in  the  kingdom,  "such  learned  men  as, 
having  especial  skill  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
tongues,  have  taken  pains  in  their  private  studies 
of  the  Scriptures  for  the  clearing  of  any  obscuri- 
ties either  in  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek,  or  touch- 
ing any  difficulties  or  mistakings  m  the  former 
EngHsh  translations."  The  revisers  were  divided 
into  six  companies,  each  of  which  took  its  own 
portion  as  its  field  of  labor.  The  Greek  and 
Hebrew  were  carefully  studied.  Bibles  in  Span- 
ish, Italian,  French,  and  German  were  examined 
for  any  aid  which  they  might  give.  The  best 
commentaries  of  European  scholars  were  con- 
sulted, and  the  effort  was  made  to  express  the 
text  in  clear,  vigorous  English.    After  four  years 


28        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  work,  in  1611  the  translation  was  published, 
and  henceforth  the  Bible  was  available  to  the 
people  as  were  other  books. 

Dr.  Newell  Dwight  HilHs  has  well  said :  "  The 
year  161 1  was  a  great  year  for  old  England.  In 
that  year  Shakespeare  wrote  two  of  his  greatest 
plays.  In  that  year  Bacon  wrote  the  first  draft 
of  his  greatest  book,  the  *  Advancement  of  Learn- 
ing.' In  that  year  imperial  Spain,  hitherto  count- 
ing herself  the  only  first-class  nation,  recognized 
little  England  as  her  equal  on  land  and  sea. 
In  that  year  William  Brewster  took  the  second 
half  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  from  Scrooby  across 
to  Leyden,  preparatory  to  the  great  voyage,  when 
the  architects  of  the  new  states,  tossing  on  the 
Mayflower,  were  to  sign  that  compact  that  was 
to  be  the  seed  corn  of  our  Constitution.  But  the 
world  now  knows  that  the  greatest  event  for  Eng- 
land in  161 1  was  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
the  language  of  the  common  people.  From  that 
hour  they  searched  the  Scriptures,  and  found 
eternal  life  therein,  and  also  found  the  springs 
of  law,  liberty,  and  progress." 

The  Revised  Version. 

We  now  come,  in  conclusion,  to  a  brief  refer- 
ence to  our  modern  Revised  Version  of  the 
Scriptures. 

Westminster  Abbey,  in  London,  is  justly  re- 
garded by  England  as  her  national  Temple  of 
Fame.     Burial  within  its  walls  is  considered  the 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  29 

last  and  greatest  honor  which  the  nation  can  be- 
stow on  the  most  deserving  of  her  sons  and 
daughters.  Through  the  aisles  of  this  national 
mausoleum  flows  the  majestic  stream  of  English 
history.  Adjoining  the  little  court  of  the  deanery 
at  the  south  of  the  Abbey  is  the  entrance  to  the 
Jerusalem  Chamber,  where  in  days  long  gone  the 
first  of  the  Lancastrian  kings  of  England  breathed 
out  his  weary  life.  In  that  room  was  drawn  up 
the  Westminster  Confession.  In  that  room,  in 
June  of  1870,  met  the  picked  scholars  of  all 
Britain,  gathered  for  the  revision  of  the  Author- 
ized Version  of  the  Scriptures.  At  the  center  of 
the  long  table  sat  the  chairman,  Bishop  Ellicott, 
and  around  him  the  flower  of  English  scholar- 
ship. There  were  Alford  and  Stanley,  and  Light- 
foot,  Westcott  and  Hort,  Scrivener  and  Eadie, 
and  the  venerable  Archbishop  of  Dublin.  Differ- 
ent religious  communions  were  represented,  vary- 
ing schools  of  thought.  Methodist  and  Baptist 
and  Presbyterian  and  Anglican  sat  side  by  side 
in  that  selected  company,  as  if  to  guard  against 
even  an  unconscious  bias  toward  any  set  of  theo- 
logical views.  Across  the  Atlantic  a  similarly 
constructed  company  was  cooperating  with  this, 
to  criticise  their  work  and  to  suggest  emenda- 
tions. Nearly  one  hundred  of  the  ripest  scholars 
of  England  and  America  were  connected  with 
the  Revision.  For  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years  scholars  had  been  toiling  in  many  lands 
over  the  masses  of  biblical  lore,  and  the  results 


30        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  those  toils  appeared  in  the  clear  and  carefully 
prepared  sheets  which  lay  upon  the  table  before 
the  revisers.  The  scholarship  of  the  ages  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  Book  of  books. 

So  the  work  went  on,  month  after  month,  until 
more  than  ten  years  had  passed,  and  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  those  who  met  on  that  first 
day  in  1870  to  begin  the  work  were  numbered 
among  the  company  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven. 
In  the  evening  of  November  11,  1880,  there  was 
an  assembly  for  special  prayer  and  thanksgiving 
in  the  Church  of  St.  Martin-in-the-Fields  — 
thanksgiving  for  the  happy  completion  of  the 
labor  upon  the  New  Testament,  and  prayer  that 
God  might  use  it  for  the  good  of  men  and  for 
the  honor  of  His  holy  name.  Four  years  after- 
ward the  company  revising  the  Old  Testament 
finished  its  work,  and  on  May  5,  1885,  the  com- 
plete Revised  Bible  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
people. 

The  Revised  Version  therefore  is  the  result  of 
the  use  of  all  the  authorities,  of  all  the  results  of 
the  best  thinking  of  the  ages,  together  with  the 
utilization  of  manuscripts,  some  of  which  have 
been  discovered  within  very  recent  years.  No 
previous  revision  has  ever  had  such  an  advantage. 
Upon  no  previous  revision  have  such  scholars 
been  engaged.  In  no  previous  revision  have  those 
who  took  the  lead  shown  so  large  a  measure  of 
fellowship  with  those  outside  their  own  com- 
munion.     In    no    previous    revision    have    such 


HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE  31 

effective  precautions  been  taken  against  accidental 
oversight  or  lurking  bias.  The  Revision,  both 
English  and  American  editions,  may  be  fairly 
said  to  possess  pre-eminent  claims  upon  the  confi- 
dence of  all  devout  thinkers  and  readers  of  the 
Scriptures.  Beyond  all  other  versions,  it  brings 
us  close  to  the  meaning  of  the  original  form  in 
which  the  written  Scriptures  were  given  to 
mankind. 

The  Conclusion  of  the  Matter. 

So  we  have,  though  closely  limited  by  the 
necessities  of  time  and  space,  discussed  the 
origins  of  the  Bible  as  we  have  it  today.  Surely 
it  is  the  Book  of  books.  For  eighteen  hundred 
years  it  has  stood.  Rome  has  gone  down  in  ruin, 
the  empires  of  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon  have 
flourished  and  gone  into  decay,  England,  Ger- 
many and  America  have  taken  their  places  among 
the  great  nations  of  the  earth,  wars  civil  and 
religious  have  raged,  the  earth  has  been  deluged 
in  blood,  but  through  the  ages  the  Bible  has  stood, 
and  stands,  not  a  book  missing  or  seriously  muti- 
lated, the  mightiest  power  upon  earth.  "  For 
some  reason  which  never  fails  to  move  me  with 
awe,  God  has  been  pleased  in  all  these  years  to 
communicate  most  largely  His  impulse  and  His 
irresistible  energy  through  these  vital  pages." 
We  must  not  fail  to  realize  the  significance  of 
the  well-known  lines  - — 


32         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORD  TODAY 

"Last  eve  I  paused  beside  a  blacksmith's  door, 
And  heard  the  anvil  ring  the  vesper  chime; 
Then,  looking  in,  I  saw  upon  the  floor 
Old  hammers  worn  with  beating  years  of  time. 

'How  many  anvils  have  you  had?'  said  I, 
*To  wear  and  batter  all  these  hammers  so?' 
'Just  one,'  said  he;  then  said,  with  twinkling  eye, 
'The  anvil  wears  the  hammers  out,  you  know.' 

And  so,  I  thought,  the  anvil  of  God's  Word, 
For  ages  sceptic  blows  have  beat  upon; 
Yet,  though  the  noise  of  falling  blows  was  heard, 
The  anvil  is  unharmed  —  the  hammers  gone." 


II 

JCiie  J&iblt  anb  tfje  ^Ttuentietti  Centurp 

T.    HARWOOD    PATTISON 

We  must  first  pause  to  pay  our  tribute  of 
reverence  and  admiration  to  the  last  century. 
As  a  Bible  era,  one  of  the  critical  points  in  the 
progress  of  our  Bible,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  nineteenth  century  is  worthy  to 
take  its  place  beside  the  great  century  in  which 
Jerome  gave  us  the  Vulgate;  or  that  in  which 
Tyndale  translated  the  Bible  into  the  tongue  so 
dear  to  the  majority  of  my  readers;  or  that  in 
which  the  version  which  bears  the  name  of  King 
James  saw  the  light.  If  with  the  passing  of  the 
dark  ages  "  Greece  rose  from  the  grave  with  the 
New  Testament  in  her  hand,"  with  equal  truth 
may  it  be  said  that  the  nineteenth  century  rose 
from  the  grave  of  the  eighteenth  with  the  Bible 
for  the  whole  world  in  hers. 

Two  Memorable  Rooms. 

There  are  two  rooms  in  London  which  seem 
to  me  to  be  forever  memorable  in  the  history  of 
the  Bible.  The  first  may  still  be  found  on  the 
edge  of  the  river  Thames,   in  the  busiest  part 


34         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  the  city.  Here,  a  hundred  years  ago,  were 
the  offices  of  Joseph  Hardcastle,  one  of  the  mer- 
chant princes  of  London,  endued  with  such  en- 
tire devotion  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel  that  he 
welcomed  men  like-minded  with  himself  when 
they  came  to  consult  on  matters  of  the  highest 
moment  to  the  advance  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
In  his  private  office  were  held  the  early  com- 
mittee meetings  of  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety and  the  Religious  Tract  Society;  and  here 
was  born  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

"  I  scarcely  ever  pass  over  London  Bridge," 
one  of  Joseph  Hardcastle's  colleagues  wrote, 
'*  without  glancing  my  eye  toward  those  highly 
favored  rooms,  feeling  a  glow  of  pleasure  at  the 
recollection  that  there  many  societies  formed  their 
plans  of  Christian  benevolence.  Those  rooms  in 
my  judgment  are  second  to  none  but  that  in  which 
the  disciples  met  after  their  Master's  ascension, 
and  from  which  they  went  forth  to  enlighten  and 
to  bless  a  dark  and  guilty  world." 

The  nineteenth  century  caught  the  mission  of 
the  first.  Pentecost  in  Jerusalem  heard  the  won- 
derful works  of  God  divinely  recounted  through 
the  miraculous  gift  of  tongues  to  the  multitudes 
from  many  lands  gathered  about  the  apostles. 
By  England  and  America  supremely  has  this 
honor  been  assumed  in  the  age  in  which  we  live. 
Every  man  the  world  over  is  to  hear  in  his  own 
language  the  news  of  God's  unspeakable  gift. 

In  the  great  work  of  Bible  translation,  all  the 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  35 

leading  churches  of  Protestant  Christendom  have 
played  a  part.  And  this  work  is  emphatically 
the  work  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Up  to  the 
year  1800  there  were  only  sixty-six  languages 
and  dialects,  so  far  as  we  know,  into  which  any 
portion  of  the  Scriptures  had  been  translated. 
But  by  i860  the  number  had  risen  to  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty.  By  1890  it  had  touched  three 
hundred  and  thirty-one,  and  we  cross  the  thresh- 
old of  the  new  century  with  some  four  hundred 
and  fifty-one  versions,  while  every  year  this  num- 
ber is  increased.  Berthold,  archbishop  of  May- 
ence,  in  1468  forbade  the  circulation  of  religious 
works  in  the  vernacular,  on  the  ground  that  the 
German  language  was  incapable  of  expressing 
the  deep  truths  of  religion.  Today  the  whole 
wide  world,  whether  savage  or  civilized,  laughs 
that  embargo  to  scorn.  Our  religion  has  not  yet 
failed  through  any  mother  tongue  to  win  its  way 
to  the  common  human  heart. 

The  second  memorable  London  room  to  which 
I  call  your  attention,  is  better  known  than  Joseph 
Hardcastle's  dingy  office.  It  is  the  Jerusalem 
Chamber,  in  the  Deanery  of  Westminster,  which 
will  forever  be  associated  with  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion of  the  Bible,  the  achievement  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  in  its  closing  years.  In  the  whole 
history  of  the  English  Bible  the  public  interest 
in  this  version  remains  without  any  parallel. 

"  When  the  Revised  Version  of  the  English 
New  Testament  appeared  in  1881,  orders  for  a 


36        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

million  copies  were  received  before  publication 
by  the  Oxford  Press  alone,  and  perhaps  an  equal 
number  was  ordered  from  the  Cambridge  Press. 
The  sale  of  the  Revised  Testament  opened  in  the 
United  States  on  May  20  amid  scenes  absolutely 
unparalleled  in  the  book  trade  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world.  It  is  said  that  thirty-three 
thousand  copies  were  sold  on  that  day  in  New 
York.  They  were  hawked  about  the  streets  by 
newsboys  and  fakirs,  and  sold  even  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Stock  Exchange.  Two  Chicago 
papers,  the  Tribune  and  the  Times,  had  a  large 
part  of  the  New  Testament  telegraphed  from 
New  York  and  sent  it  to  their  readers  complete 
within  two  days  of  publication.  The  Tribune  em- 
ployed for  the  purpose  ninety-two  compositors 
and  five  correctors,  and  the  whole  was  completed 
in  twelve  hours.  The  Times  had  the  four  Gos- 
pels, the  Acts,  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
telegraphed,  and  set  up  the  remainder  from  a  copy 
that  was  forwarded  by  rail.  The  portion  tele- 
graphed contains  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  words  and  constitutes  the  longest  dis- 
patch ever  sent  over  the  wires.  A  large  number 
of  papers  followed  the  example  of  these  in  Chi- 
cago and  sent  the  New  Testament  to  their  readers 
as  a  supplement  to  their  regular  issues.  Besides 
this  extensive  newspaper  circulation,  there  were 
as  many  as  thirty  editions  issued  in  America  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  year.  Who,  in  the  light 
of  these  facts,  can  doubt  the  pre-eminence  of  the 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  37 

Bible  among  all  books?    Of  no  other  could  such 
things  be  possible."  ^ 

That  the  final  revision  of  the  Bible  has  now 
seen  the  light,  no  one  with  any  understanding 
of  the  times  supposes.  The  immense  influence 
which  the  Authorized  Version  has  exercised  for 
nearly  three  hundred  years  has  not  been  checked 
by  its  younger  rival.  The  demand  for  it  is 
greater  than  it  ever  was.  One  great  service,  in- 
deed, which  the  Revised  Version  has  rendered  to 
our  Christian  faith  is  to  demonstrate  that  the 
Bible,  so  far  from  fearing,  welcomes  examination, 
and  demands  that  the  acutest  and  soundest  schol- 
arship of  each  age  should  be  devoted  to  its  pages. 
At  the  same  time,  the  learning  gathered  about 
the  table  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  in  its  turn, 
testifies  that  to  be  engaged  in  the  study  of  the 
old  version  is  to  admire  more  and  more  "  its 
simplicity,  its  dignity,  its  power,  its  happy  turns 
of  expression,  its  general  accuracy,  and  the  music 
of  its  cadences,  and  the  felicity  of  its  rhythm." 
The  growing  circulation  of  the  Revised  Version, 
alike  in  its  British  and  American  form,  has  only 
gone  to  swell,  as  by  some  great  tributary,  the 
parent  river,  moving  on  in  its  majestic  course 
through  all  the  English-speaking  peoples  of  the 
world.  Assuredly  the  nineteenth  century  places 
the  English  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the  twentieth 
a  worthier  transcript  of  the  revelation  of  God  to 
man  than  it  has  ever  been  before. 

*  Professor  Perry,  of  Hartford  Theological  Seminary. 


38        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Forces  to  be  Encountered. 

I  turn  now  to  consider  some  of  the  forces 
which  our  Bible  will  certainly  have  to  encounter 
in  this  present  century.  As  I  do  so,  I  am  im- 
pressed at  once  with  the  altered  feeling  in  refer- 
ence to  the  book  throughout  the  intelligent  world. 
The  very  tone  of  opposition  has  changed  for  the 
better.  In  the  eighteenth  century  it  could  with 
truth  be  said  of  Voltaire  that, 

The  Scripture  was  his  jest  book,  whence  he  drew 
Bomnots  to  gall  the  Christian  and  the  Jew. 

The  spirit  of  contemptuous  scorn  breaks  into  a 
coarser  temper  in  Thomas  Paine,  a  few  years 
later,  when  he  concludes  the  first  part  of  his 
"  Age  of  Reason  "  by  saying:  "  I  have  now  gone 
through  the  Bible,  as  a  man  would  go  through  a 
wood  with  an  axe,  and  felled  trees.  Here  they 
lie,  and  the  priests  may  replant  them,  but  they 
will  never  make  them  grow."  For  the  present, 
at  least,  we  seem  to  have  seen  the  last  of  the 
men  who,  whether  for  love  of  gain  or  to  catch  a 
transient  notoriety,  will  treat  the  Bible  as  an 
object  of  ridicule  or  a  target  for  invective.  The 
world  of  life  and  the  world  of  letters  have  ceased 
to  respect  antagonists  of  this  order.  Probably 
the  Bible  never  stood  so  high  in  the  estimation 
of  the  human  intellect,  never  so  high  in  the  love 
of  the  human  heart,  as  it  does  at  this  moment. 
But  it  must  look  to  be  measured  against  the 
forces  which  hold  the  field  as  our  century  opens. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  39 

From  that  ordeal,  how  may  we  anticipate  that 
it  will  emerge  ?  By  considering  what  these  forces 
are  we  shall  best  answer  this  question. 

A  Quickened  Intellectual  Life. 

I.  Let  me  name  as  first  among  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  twentieth  century  a  quickened 
intellectual  life. 

The  form  in  which  this  message  from  God 
reaches  us  is  of  great  moment.  Here  you  see 
a  printed  book.  It  does  not  change  with  the 
passing  years.  It  is  not  at  the  mercy  of  speech 
as  is  the  sermon  of  the  preacher.  It  does  not 
shift  its  ground  as  does  public  opinion.  Every 
advance,  therefore,  in  recovering  a  pure  Bible 
is  a  return  to  rock  truth,  to  the  clearer  under- 
standing of  the  mind  of  God  Himself.  As  a 
printed  book,  the  Bible  has  always  led  the  field. 
Even  up  to  1490,  it  had  exceeded  in  the  amount 
of  printing  all  other  books  put  together.  A  thou- 
sand editions  of  the  Bible,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
were  issued  in  the  first  half-century  of  the  his- 
tory of  printing.  From  that  time  onward  the 
Bible  has  continued  to  be  the  best-known  book 
in  the  world.  That  which  is  best  known  is  there- 
fore best  guarded.  The  printed  page  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  manuscript  parchment.  Errors 
which  were  formerly  inevitable  in  transmission 
are  now  practically  impossible.  The  book  is  fitter 
than  it  has  ever  been  to  submit  itself  to  the  ex- 
amination of  the  age  to  which  it  comes. 


40        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

An  Age  of  Careful  Criticism. 

a.  Our  age  is  an  age  trained  to  careful  criti- 
cism. No  treatment  of  our  subject  would  be 
adequate  and  fair  which  did  not  do  justice  to  the 
immense  service  that  the  criticism  of  the  present 
time  in  this  country,  in  Great  Britain,  in  Ger- 
m,any,  is  rendering  to  the  textual  study  of  the 
Bible. 

"  In  the  monumental  works  on  biblical  grammar 
and  lexicography  and  the  great  concordances 
to  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  produced  dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century,  we  have  enduring 
bulwarks,  impregnable  so  long  as  men  have  skill 
to  employ  them  against  the  inroads  of  arbitrary 
interpretation.  They  are  the  firmest  guarantee 
that  the  Protestant  standard  of  faith  and  practice 
will  not  be  turned  into  a  laughing-stock  under 
the  gibe,  Scripture  means  whatever  the  individual 
interpreter  wants  it  to.  Our  highest  tributes  of 
honor  will  be  none  too  high  for  the  men  who  have 
forever  silenced  this  jeer  by  disposing  of  the 
arbitrary  interpreter  and  restoring  to  the  Scrip- 
ture writers  the  right  to  mean  what  they  say, 
whether  in  agreement  with  modern  theological 
views  or  not."  ^ 

The  critic,  no  doubt,  as  any  other  man,  has 
his  limitations,  and,  as  any  other  man,  he  does 
not  always  respect  them.  Still,  as  ever,  must  it 
be  true  that  it  is  with  the  message  itself  and  not 
with  the  form  in  which  it  comes  to  us  that  we 

^  Professor  Bacon,  of  Yale  University. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  41 

are  supremely  interested.  But  we  cannot  be  too 
thankful  that  the  criticism  of  today  is  so  deeply 
occupied  with  that  form.  That  it  is  increasingly 
so  with  every  advance  in  the  science  of  language 
is  surely  an  augury  for  good.  Only  we  must 
insist  that  while  grammar  is  to  be  the  basis  of 
much  of  our  work  on  the  Bible,  it  can  never  be 
more  than  the  means  to  an  end,  the  channel  of 
the  marbde  aqueduct  through  which  flows  to 
parched  lips  the  water  of  life.  John  Ruskin 
complained  to  his  friend  Professor  Knight  that 
people  are  eager  to  '*  prove  all  things,"  but  not 
so  eager  to  ''  hold  fast  to  that  which  is  good." 
To  fail  here,  however,  is  to  fail  altogether.  It 
is  to  grasp  the  dictionary,  but  lose  a  literature. 
It  is  to  spend  our  lives  over  the  letter,  and  miss 
entirely  the  spirit. 

An  Age  of  Literary  Culture. 

h.  Our  age  is  an  age  of  increasing  literary 
culture.  As  to  the  quality  of  that  culture  I  am 
not  saying  anything.  All  that  I  need  to  do  is 
to  note  the  fact.  It  is  calculated  that  on  litera- 
ture and  education  the  churches  of  America  alone 
expend  more  than  thirty-two  million  dollars 
yearly.  Such  a  widespread  desire  for  mental  im- 
provement certainly  never  distinguished  any  pre- 
vious century.  To  me  this  is  one  sign,  and  per- 
haps the  easiest  on  which  to  fasten,  of  literary 
quickening.  Unless  this  quickening  should  change 
in  its  character,  the  Bible  will  be  a  prime  element 


42        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY         ^ 

in  its  affluent  life.     Of  the  Bible  the  world  over 
it   is  true,    ''  The   entrance   of   thy   word   giveth 

light." 

At  fifty  years  of  age  Professor  Huxley  took 
up  Greek,  as  his  son  believes,  that  he  might  learn 
to  read  the  New  Testament  in  the  original.  The 
study  of  the  English  Bible  as  literature  has  been 
called  a  discovery  of  our  own  time.  Certainly 
it  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  discoveries, 
the  scholarship,  and  the  general  literary  interest 
of  the  century.  The  Bible  is  the  staple  of  any 
intelligent  investigation  into  the  roots  of  our 
language.  This  the  latest  abridgment  of  the 
"  International  Dictionary "  recognizes  by  re- 
taining all  the  words  in  the  King  James  version 
and  in  Shakespeare,  even  though  they  may  have 
become  rare  and  perhaps  obsolete  in  our  daily 
speech.  Ruskin  has  left  us  a  list,  made  out  by 
his  mother,  of  the  chapters  in  the  Bible  which 
she  thought  to  be  best  suited  for  his  special 
training,  and  he  counts  the  impress  which  these 
chapters  made  on  his  taste  in  literature  as  "  the 
most  precious  and  on  the  whole  the  one  essential 
part  of  his  education."  "  The  music  of  the  Eng- 
hsh  Bible,"  writes  Cardinal  Manning,  looking 
back  half-mournfuUy  to  his  early  life  as  an 
English  clergyman,  "  became  a  part  of  my 
soul." 

Whether  or  not  we  use  the  English  Bible  in 
our  public  schools,  the  words  of  Frederic  Harri- 
son must  remain   true :   ''  The   English   Bible   is 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  43 

the  true  school  of  EngHsh  Hterature.  It  pos- 
sesses every  quaUty  of  our  language  in  its  highest 
form.  The  book  which  begot  English  prose  still 
remains  its  supreme  type."  Not  less  emphatic 
is  the  judgment  of  James  Anthony  Froude: 
"  The  Bible,  thoroughly  known,  is  a  litera- 
ture of  itself  —  the  rarest  and  richest  in  all 
departments  of  thought  and  imagination  which 
exists." 

Literature,  more  perhaps  than  science  or  than 
art,  has  its  fashions;  but  already  the  Bible  has 
survived  so  many  of  these  that  it  is  in  no  danger 
of  going  out  of  fashion  at  the  bidding  of  any 
passing  literary  caprice.  No  other  body  of  litera- 
ture so  certainly  appeals  to  every  variety  of  in- 
tellectual taste.  No  other  body  of  literature  has 
such  infinite  variety  in  itself.  As  no  previous 
age  the  age  in  which  we  live  is  learning  to  prize 
the  Bible  as  literature. 

Nor  is  it  possible  to  separate  the  literary  beauty 
of  the  Bible  from  its  spiritual  contents.  In  all 
ages  God  has  been  pleased  to  select  men  for  the 
work  of  translation  who  were  equipped  not  alone 
with  a  strong  faith  but  also  with  the  intellectual 
culture  which  could  make  that  faith  doubly  effec- 
tive. Tennyson's  mother  tells  him  how  fervently 
she  has  prayed  ''  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may  urge 
him  to  employ  his  talents  to  impress  on  the  minds 
of  others  the  precepts  of  God's  Holy  Word." 
Who  shall  say  that  "  In  Memoriam  "  is  not  one 
answer  to  these  prayers?    The  literary  excellence 


44      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  this  Bible  is  a  weapon  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  used  in  all  ages.  It  is  no  solitary  experience 
that  Tatian  relates  in  the  second  century.  Coming 
to  Rome  a  seeker  after  truth,  weary  of  philosophy 
and  sick  of  the  religious  systems  of  his  times, 
he  came  across  "  certain  barbarous  writings  older 
than  the  doctrines  of  the  Greeks,  and  far  too 
divine  to  be  marked  by  their  errors."  ^  These 
"  barbarous  writings  "  —  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  lives  of  the  early  Christians  — 
joined  to  win  Tatian  over  to  the  faith  of  Christ, 
of  which  he  was  henceforth  the  champion  and 
apologist. 

A  Teaching  Age. 

c.  This  age,  with  its  quickened  intellectual 
life,  is  certain  to  be  an  age  memorable  in  the 
history  of  education.  It  will  be  a  teaching  age. 
Perhaps  while  the  preacher  will  lose  none  of  his 
power  as  a  herald,  he  may  come  to  train  himself 
in  this  new  and  necessary  art.  He  must  also 
teach.  To  this  the  missionary  gives  himself 
"  when  he  translates  the  Bible,  when  he  instructs 
the  converts  in  the  first  essentials  of  Christianity, 
when  he  lays  the  foundations  for  Christian  insti- 
tutions, when  he  trains  a  native  ministry,  when 
he  educates  the  young,  and  when  he  fosters  gen- 
eral education  of  the  most  useful  kind."  ^     The 

^  Canon  Edmonds,  The  Translation  and  Distribution  of 
the  Bible,  p.  8. 

2  Dr.  W.  N.  Clarke,  A  Study  of  Christian  Missions. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  45 

Bible  needs  to  be  expounded  as  well  as  preached 
from.  It  is  not  so  much  a  repository  of  texts 
as  it  is  a  treasury  of  truths.  This  was  one  char- 
acteristic of  the  Reformation.  Not  only  was  the 
Bible  a  herald,  it  was  also  a  teacher.  If  w*ith 
Luther  it  insisted,  with  Colet  it  explained.  His 
method  of  so  dealing  with  the  Scriptures  as  to 
make  them  living  books  to  the  men  of  his  times, 
bringing  out  the  richness  and  fullness  of  the 
teaching  that  stimulated  the  spiritual  life  of  his 
hearers  in  Oxford,  may  well  bid  our  preachers 
to  go  and  do  likewise.  It  is  this  same  Book  which 
was  the  constant  study  of  Count  Tolstoy,  who 
declared  that  "  without  the  Bible  in  our  society 
the  development  of  the  child  or  of  the  man  would 
be  as  impossible  as  it  would  have  been  in  Greek 
society  without  Homer." 

An  Age  of  Research. 

d.  Pre-eminently  it  is  likely  that  our  age  will 
be  one  of  research.  Perhaps  this  will  distinguish 
it  even  more  than  criticism.  The  historic  value 
of  the  Bible  is  to  be  tested  in  the  light  of  our 
increasing  knowledge  of  the  past.  Travel  will 
open  up  buried  records.  The  dust  heaps  and 
mounds  of  extinct  civilizations  will  reveal  their 
hidden  treasures.  From  their  deciphered  in- 
scriptions the  rocks  will  speak.  At  the  bidding 
of  the  explorer  the  Orient  will  rise  and  unveil 
her  face,  and  open  her  long-sealed  lips.  The 
Bible  as  an  Oriental  book  of  the  first  importance 


46       THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

is  to  take  on  a  fresh  interest,  as  round  about  it 
quickens  this  wonderful  renaissance.  As  the 
book  of  origins  its  records  will  be  a  thousand 
times  more  significant  to  us  and  to  our  children 
than  they  were  when  Tyndale  languished  in  Vil- 
vorde  Castle,  or  even  when  the  revisers  sat  in  the 
Jerusalem  Chamber. 

Equally,  the  study  of  comparative  religions  is 
going  to  set  this  Bible  in  vivid  contrast  with  other 
sacred  books.  We  shall  prize  the  sanity  of  its 
records  none  the  less  because  we  are  brought  into 
closer  touch  with  men  who  in  other  parts  of  the 
world  than  among  the  hills  and  valleys  of  Pales- 
tine felt  after  God  that  so  they  might  find  Him. 

Out  of  all  this  will  come  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  not  alone  in  all  the  so-called  sacred  books, 
but  emphatically  in  this,  the  one  truly  sacred 
Book  which  is  not  for  an  age  but  for  all 
time. 

The  Bible  will  survive  unfair  critics.  It  will 
achieve  a  still  harder  task  —  it  will  survive  un- 
wise friends.  Time  was  when  its  great  words 
were  wrested  in  order  to  buttress  the  claims  of 
the  Church  and  the  pretensions  of  the  clergy. 
This  day  may  never  come  again.  Nor  is  it  likely 
that  the  befogged  mind  of  those  devotees  of  the 
letter  that  killeth,  whose  zeal  so  easily  outstrips 
their  knowledge,  will  ever  again  bring  intelligent 
men  to  believe  that  a  more  accurate  comprehen- 
sion of  the  way  in  which  this  Book  came  about 
will  deprive  it  of  its  sanctity  or  divest  it  of  its 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  47 

authority.  It  will  come  to  be  seen  with  greater 
clearness  as  time  passes  "  that  the  contents  of  the 
Book  are  more  valuable  than  the  vessel  which 
holds  them,"  and  that  the  Book  itself  "  transcends 
in  importance  and  value  the  various  speculations 
of  men  about  them,  the  interpretations  which 
different  ages  have  given  them,  and  all  recon- 
struction of  the  truth  in  theological  systems  and 
formulas  and  creeds."  ^ 

Some  things  which  the  early  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  believed  about  the  Bible  the  twen- 
tieth century  may  be  unable  to  hold.  Commen- 
taries prized  by  our  fathers  will  doubtless  lose 
their  value  in  the  estimation  of  their  children. 
Theological  definitions  will  still  change  with 
changes  in  the  thought  of  the  age  as  they  always 
have ;  and  what  seemed  the  kernel  to  one  gener- 
ation will  seem  only  the  husk  to  the  generation 
which  follows  it.^  But  it  is  impossible  to  regard 
with  any  apprehension  the  breath  of  free  and 
candid  opinion,  provided  only  that  it  is  not  suf- 
fered to  stagnate  into  a  spirit  of  unreasonable 
dogma  that  shuts  out  any  fresh  springtide  of  new 
thought.  Our  Lord  Himself,  while  speaking  with 
the  highest  authority,  constantly  challenges  the 
consent  of  the  candid  mind.  "  Every  one  that 
is  of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice." 

1  Dr.  Gilman,  The  Nineteenth  Century  to  the  Twenti- 
eth, p.  17. 

2  Cf.  Spence,  Back  to  Christ,  p.  30. 


48        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

The  Influence  of  the  Bible  upon  National  Life. 

2.  How,  let  us  now  ask,  in  the  face  of  great 
political  changes,  will  the  Bible  influence  national 
Hfe? 

a.  When  the  nineteenth  century  dawned  the 
map  of  Europe  was  being  remodeled.  When  the 
twentieth  century  dawned  the  remodeling  process 
was  being  applied  to  the  map  of  the  world.  It 
is  no  longer  the  boundaries  of  France  or  Prussia 
or  Austria  that  are  under  discussion.  It  is  the 
expansion  of  these  United  States.  It  is  the 
British  control  of  Africa.  It  is  the  eastward  trend 
of  Russia.  It  is  the  very  existence  of  China. 
Almost  it  seems  as  though  the  westward  march 
of  empire  had  completed  its  circuit,  and  were 
now!  doubling  back  on  the  Orient  itself.  In  the 
face  of  these  facts  this  book,  so  distinctly  Oriental 
in  its  setting,  cannot  be  regarded  with  indifference. 
That  it  has  so  largely  influenced  the  world  when 
the  hemispheres  were  parted  the  one  from  the 
other,  leads  us  to  anticipate  that  with  these  closer 
relations  the  influence  will  be  still  more  marked. 

Certainly  the  Bible  has  survived  the  empires 
with  which  its  early  fortunes  were  bound  up. 
Genesis  lives,  although  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  is 
a  region  for  conjecture  only.  The  idyl  of  Ruth 
charms,  although  Moab  be  forgotten ;  the  Psalms 
of  David  make  music  for  the  world,  although  the 
slopes  of  Bethlehem  are  now  heroic  only  in  their 
memories.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  today  the 
most  attractive  itinerary  of  Asia  Minor;   Miletus 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  49 

has  a  name  to  live  solely  because  there  Paul, 
with  tender,  touching  words,  bade  farewell  to 
the  elders  of  Ephesus ;  it  is  to  tread  in  the  foot- 
prints of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake  that 
the  traveler  walks  the  shores  of  Gennesaret ; 
Athens  today  holds  no  spot  of  wider  interest  than 
Mars'  Hill;  and  the  great  dome  of  St.  Peter's 
perpetuates  the  name  of  the  obscure  fisherman 
whom  heathen  Rome  put  to  death,  and  catches 
the  eye  of  the  tourist  long  before  he  detects  the 
hill  of  the  Capitol  or  the  palaces  of  the  Caesars. 
And  with  all  these  names  the  Bible  is  closely 
identified. 

h.  The  twentieth  century  finds  much  of  the 
civilized  world  absorbed  in  the  expansion  rather 
than  in  the  preservation  of  its  territory. 

The  policy  of  expansion  is  not  here  to  be  dis- 
cussed, but  what  is  certain  is  that  the  territories 
henceforth  to  be  so  largely  controlled  by  the 
United  States  must  look  to  us  for  the  Bible. 
The  quickening  of  national  life  may  outstrip  the 
work  of  evangelization,  but  this  book  will  often 
find  its  wTay  where  no  preacher  can  gain  a  hear- 
ing. And  here,  at  home,  as  the  whole  world 
sends  to  our  shores  representatives  of  its  vast 
and  varied  nationalities,  we  are  bound  to  pro- 
vide for  them  the  Word  of  life.  The  tongues 
which  are  talked  in  San  Francisco,  in  Chicago, 
in  New  York,  leave  the  many  languages  of  Pente- 
cost far  behind  ;  but  into  them  all  the  same  appeal 
has  to  be  rendered :   "  Repent   and  be  baptized 


50        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

every  one  of  you  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and 
ye  shall  receive  the  Holy  Ghost." 

c.  Notice,  as  you  look  around  in  the  first  flush 
of  the  century,  that  the  dominant  races  are  all  of 
them,  in  name  if  not  in  spirit,  Christian.  As  the 
shackles  of  superstition  fell  off  from  the  limbs 
of  enfranchised  Europe  with  the  breaking  up  of 
the  Dark  Ages,  it  was  the  Bible  which  proved 
itself  the  Book  of  the  people,  molding  the  best 
life  of  the  Teutonic  and  Anglo-Saxon  races. 

More  and  more  we  are  learning  that  the  form 
which  our  religion  takes  on  in  any  country  must 
harmonize  with  that  country's  habits  and  cus- 
toms. These  are  not  essential,  but  "  wherever 
Christ  and  His  gospel  are  taught  the  husk  of 
form  may  change,  but  the  core  of  eternal  truth 
will  remain.  It  is  with  that  core  of  truth  divine, 
immortal,  of  instant  and  everlasting  moment,  that 
the  gospel  is  concerned."  ^ 

d.  In  the  inevitable  growth  of  culture  and 
civilization  which  will  come  with  this  enlarged 
national  life  the  Bible  will  play  its  part.  It  will 
continue  to  raise  the  standard  of  popular  morality, 
to  work  for  that  universal  suffrage  of  schooling 
which  is  far  more  important  than  any  other  uni- 
versal suffrage.  Still,  it  will  furnish  for  litera- 
ture its  noblest  themes,  and  for  art  its  most  in- 
spiring subjects.  Still,  as  from  the  days  of  Moses, 
it  will  impregnate  law  with  its  lofty  spirit  of 
humanity.     When  the  nineteenth  century  began 

*  Contemporary  Review,  Dec.  1900,  p.  876. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  51 

a  Bible  could  not  be  found  in  Calcutta;  and  in 
Madras,  at  the  opening  of  a  court-martial,  as 
the  nearest  approach  to  it,  a  scrap  of  an  Episcopal 
Prayer  Book  was  used  with  which  to  swear  in  a 
witness.^  It  was  not  the  British  official  but  the 
Christian  citizen  who  revolutionized  India  for 
Christ,  and  made  the  Bible  one  of  its  household 
possessions.  Today,  in  Africa,  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  has  established  a  depot  for 
the  sale  of  the  Scriptures  in  Omdurman,  where 
General  Gordon  was  massacred ;  and  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  British  throne  in  Khartum  took 
pains  to  say  that  the  sale  of  the  Scriptures  was 
nowhere  in  the  world  forbidden,  and  would  not 
be  forbidden  in  the  Soudan. 

The  English  Language. 

e.  It  cannot  have  escaped  your  attention  that 
the  spread  of  the  English  language  is  one  of  the 
prominent  features  of  our  times.  The  tongue 
of  our  childhood,  of  our  homes,  of  our  daily  life, 
of  our  literature,  is  becoming  familiar  in  the  ear 
of  the  world. ^ 

/.    Still  more  would  I  emphasize,  among  the 

^  Caroline  Fox, 

^  In  1800  it  was  spoken  by  21,000,000  people.  Now  it 
is  spoken  by  120,000,000.  Russian  has  advanced  in  the 
same  period  from  being  spoken  by  30,000,000  to  be  the  common 
tongue  of  75,000,000.  German  spoken  in  1800  by  30,000,000 
is  now  spoken  by  70,000,000.  French  has  gone  up  from 
30,000,000  to  45,000,000  and  Spanish  from  27,000,000  to 
45,000,000. 


52        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

influences  which  this  Book  will  exert  over  the 
political  changes  of  the  next  fifty  years,  its  power 
to  form  and  develop  national  character.  This  is 
the  Book  which  leads  us  back  to  root  principles. 
What  other  volume  has  made  great  men  and 
women  as  this  has?  What  other  volume  has 
put  iron  in  the  blood  as  this  has?  What  other 
volume  as  this  has  set  before  the  statesman  and 
the  patriot  lofty  ideals?  It  was  the  Bible  which 
taught  John  Knox  to  fear  the  King  of  kings, 
and  to  fear  no  other  king  but  him ;  it  was  with 
the  Bible  that  Cromwell  and  his  "  Ironsides " 
flung  out  their  standard  at  Dundee.  It  was  on 
the  impregnable  rock  of  Scripture  that  Gladstone 
planted  himself.  It  was  a  faith  trained  in  the 
Bible  that  made  Bismarck  confident  in  the  ulti- 
mate victory  of  his  Fatherland.  Calvinism  has 
had  more  to  do  with  building  up  a  strong  na- 
tional character  than  any  other  system  of  theology. 
To  quote  Doctor  Hodge :  "  It  regards  divine 
sovereignty  and  the  human  will  as  the  two  sides 
of  a  roof  which  come  together  at  a  ridgepole 
above  the  clouds.  A  system  which  denies  either 
has  only  half  a  roof  over  its  head."  The  giant 
Alps  gave  John  A.  Broadus  his  fitting  image,  as, 
traveling  under  their  shadows,  he  said :  "  The 
people  who  sneer  at  what  is  called  Calvinism 
might  as  well  sneer  at  Mont  Blanc."  And  they 
might  as  well  sneer  at  the  Bible  also,  for  it  was 
fidelity  to  this  Book  which  gave  to  Calvinism 
alike  its  sinewy  vigor  and  its  imperial  authority. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  53 

No  Bible-loving  people,  it  has  with  absolute  truth 
been  said,  was  ever  permanently  enslaved.  I  be- 
lieve with  Henry  Ward  Beecher  that  "  The  es- 
sential elements  of  Christianity  were  never  so 
apparent  as  today,  that  they  were  never  so  influ- 
ential ;  that  they  were  never  so  likely  to  produce 
institutions  of  power;  that  they  never  had  such 
a  hold  on  human  reason  and  human  conscience ; 
and  that  the  religious  impulse  of  the  human  race 
was  never  so  deep,  never  so  strong  in  its  current." 

"  The  prime  educator  of  the  conscience,"  says 
Bishop  Gore,  "  ought  to  be  the  Bible.  In  the 
Bible  has  been  the  strength  of  the  English 
character." 

"  I  put  a  New  Testament  among  your  books," 
Charles  Dickens  wrote  to  his  son  starting  out 
to  make  his  way  in  the  world,  "  because  it  is 
the  best  book  that  ever  was  or  will  be  known  in 
the  world,  and  because  it  teaches  you  the  best 
lessons  by  which  any  human  creature  who  tries 
to  be  truthful  and  faithful  to  duty  can  possibly 
be  guided." 

To  have  this  Book  circulated  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  to  build  it  into  the  structure  of  the 
new  empire,  to  permeate  with  it  the  fresh  life 
stirring  all  about  us  at  this  hour,  is  our  policy 
as  citizens  as  well  as  our  obligation  as  Christians. 

The  Humanity  of  the  Century. 

3.  These  noble  words  bring  to  our  minds  a 
third  force  which  I  hope  is  to  influence  our  age. 


54        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

I  mean  humanity.  The  signs  are  abundant  that 
the  twentieth  century  is  to  be  emphatically 
humane. 

Happily  it  does  not  fall  within  my  province  to 
dilate  on  the  vast  increase  of  Christendom,  and 
especially  of  the  Christendom  nearest  to  our- 
selves, in  material  wealth.  Taking  this  for 
granted,  let  us  see  what  follows. 

a.  I  strike  no  joyous  note  when  I  mention, 
first  of  all,  inevitable  national  jealousies,  feuds, 
and  wars.  All  history  through,  the  prosperous 
peoples  have  been  apt  to  battle  for  what  they  have, 
and  then  to  fight  for  more.  Alas,  that  we  should 
have  to  concede  that  the  auguries  today  forecast 
but  little  betterment  in  this  respect!  Even  here, 
however,  we  take  heart  as  we  remember  that  the 
gospel  of  reconciliation,  humility  and  forgiveness, 
which  in  the  first  Christian  centuries  ranged  it- 
self against  the  aggressive  materialism  of  Rome, 
is  still  the  same.  Now,  as  then,  the  still,  small 
voice  shall  be  heard  above  the  earthquake  and 
the  tempest  of  human  passions;  and  now,  as 
then,  it  shall  recall  the  prophet  of  God  to  his 
mission  and  give  to  him  his  message.  If  war's 
red-lettered  creed  is  not  to  die  out,  its  cruelty 
will  certainly  be  assuaged  by  the  Bible.  In  the 
inglorious  conflict  in  South  Africa,  Briton  and 
Boer  united  to  supply  the  soldiers  with  Scriptures. 
Lord  Wolseley,  the  late  commander-in-chief  of 
the  British  army,  wrote,  in  his  preface  to  the 
reprint  of  Cromwell's  Soldier's  Pocket  Bible: 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  55 

^'  In  my  humble  opinion,  the  soldier  who  carries 
this  Bible  in  his  pack  possesses  what  is  of  far 
higher  value  to  him  than  the  proverbial  mar- 
shal's baton,  for  if  he  carries  its  teaching  in  his 
head,  and  lets  it  rule  his  heart  and  conduct,  he 
will  certainly  be  wholly  and  most  probably  emi- 
nently successful." 

The  Democracy  of  the  Bible. 

h.  The  democracy  of  the  Bible  is  an  element 
in  its  favor.  It  is  not  for  one  class,  or  for  one 
nation,  or  for  one  race.  It  is  for  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men.  At  this  hour  "  People 
gentle  and  simple,  people  endowed  with  the  latest 
culture,  and  people  plain  and  unadorned,  are  found 
ready  to  listen,  often  with  great  inward  comfort 
and  manifest  delight,  to  words  taken  from  a 
literature  part  of  which  dates  back  nearly  three 
thousand  years  ago."  ^  A  return  to  Christ,  in 
the  sound  meaning  of  that  over-worked  and 
hardly  used  phrase,  will  be  a  return  to  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  as  well  as  to  the  Cross.  It 
will  be  a  return  to  the  Bible,  because  that  Book 
is  full  of  Him.  "  He  is  immeasurably  greater 
than  the  Book  that  contains  the  records  of  what 
He  was ;  He  secures  for  it  a  perpetual  significance  ; 
it  can  never  be  that  the  world  will  let  fall  into 
oblivion  the  words  that  described  the  Son  of 
Man."  Of  the  Gospels  we  can  almost  hear  Him 
say :  "  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also." 

^  The  Ancient  Faith,  etc.,  pp.  74,  198. 


56        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

c.  The  Bible  —  need  it  be  said?  —  is  on  the 
side  of  humanity.  Here  we  find  one  element  in 
its  permanence.  Human  nature  must  change 
through  and  through  before  it  ceases  to  need  this 
book.  That  it  ''  finds  us  "  as  no  other  book  does, 
is  to  Coleridge  one  proof  of  its  divine  origin. 
With  what  marvelous  persistence  does  it  foster 
and  encourage  the  best  that  is  in  us !  "  We  live 
by  admiration,  hope  and  love."  It  bids  us  ad- 
mire the  most  admirable;  cherish  within  us  the 
hope  of  immortality;  and  rejoice  in  the  love 
of  Christ  that  passeth  knowledge.  Where  else 
can  you  wSalk  through  such  a  portrait  gallery 
of  high-minded  faces,  from  Abraham  standing 
up  before  his  dead,  to  Paul  writing  his  matchless 
letter  to  Philemon?  Where  else  shall  the  re- 
former listen  to  such  passionate  pleas  on  behalf 
of  the  poor  and  the  outcast  and  the  oppressed 
as  burn  on  the  lips  of  the  Hebrew  prophet? 
Where,  as  in  this  Book,  can  you  find  the  power 
which  can  make  mercy  temper  justice  in  the 
administration  of  law?  The  truest  feelings  of 
our  human  nature  respond  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Bible.  A  yearning  to  make  its  lofty  standard 
the  measure  of  our  conduct  comes  back  at  times 
to  the  men  of  highest  mind  and  noblest  imagina- 
tion with  all  the  pathos  of  the  lost  chord.  *'  I 
would  give  a  great  deal,"  declared  John  Adding- 
ton  Symonds,  "  to  regain  the  Christian  point  of 
view."  To  attain  to  this  is  the  constant  ambition 
and  effort  of  the  best  of  men  in  their  best  moods. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  57 

Even  the  man  who  was  more  fascinated  by  the 
old  pagan  spirit  than  any  of  his  contemporaries, 
Walter  Pater,  found  a  comfort  in  reciting  the 
Psalms  in  his  hours  of  doubt,  which  not  the 
noblest  Roman  poet  could  afford  him,  and  died 
with  a  little  book  of  prayer  in  his  hand,  given 
him  by  his  mother  when  he  was  a  child,  and 
which  had  been  his  constant  companion  in  all 
his  wanderings. 

d.  While  it  is  true  to  the  best  that  is  in  us, 
the  philanthropy  of  the  Bible  is  wholesome  and 
vigorous.  It  is  not  fanciful.  Nowhere  does  it 
expose  itself  to  Horace  Bushnell's  censure: 
"  There  is  no  nerve  in  a  gospel  of  mere  specu- 
lation." With  inerrant  accuracy  it  draws  the 
line,  invisible  to  so  many  modern  reformers,  be- 
tween sentiment  and  sentimentality.  It  is  never 
feeble  or  flaccid.  It  rests  not  so  much  on  love 
for  the  individual  as  on  love  for  the  whole  human 
family. 

What  spectacle  in  all  the  centuries  past  was 
more  impressive  than  that  which  was  presented 
by  the  absolute  devotion  of  the  native  Christians 
in  China?  The  brutal  and  ignorant  hate  of  their 
persecutors  moved  them  only  to  prayer.  The 
prospect  of  suffering  and  death  was  one  which 
they  beheld  through  eyes  suffused  with  tears 
such  as  Jesus  shed  above  the  doomed  Jerusalem. 
In  one  instance  a  band  of  eighteen  colporteurs 
carrying  the  Bible  to  their  countrymen  were 
warned  of  the  risk  which  they  ran  in  persisting 


58         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

in  their  mission.  Not  one  of  them  blanched  or 
shrank  from  the  martyrdom  awaiting  him.  "  We 
go,"  said  they,  ''  on  a  colportage  tour.  God's 
will  be  done.''  And  from  that  tour  only  four 
returned  alive.  An  example  such  as  this,  which 
draws  not  its  language  alone  but  its  very  spirit 
from  Calvary,  will  be  a  mighty  power  in  com- 
mending to  China  the  gospel  of  divine  love. 

e.  The  Bible,  we  say,  is  on  the  side  of  hu- 
manity. The  converse  is  also  true.  Humanity 
is  on  the  side  of  the  Bible.  In  all  the  great 
crises  of  Bible  history,  with  Savonarola  in  Flor- 
ence, with  Wyclifife  at  Lutterworth,  with  Tyndale 
in  Antwerp,  with  Luther  in  Wittenberg,  with 
Knox  in  Edinburgh,  the  heart  of  the  people  has 
never  failed  to  beat  in  unison  with  the  Bible. 
In  the  teeth  of  priests  and  potentates  they  have 
demanded  that  the  Word  of  God  be  not  bound. 

Among  all  the  schemes  which  are  being  floated 
at  this  hour  for  the  betterment  of  the  masses  who 
herd  together  in  a  life  to  which  grace  and  beauty 
are  denied,  and  where  indeed  only  by  a  severe 
struggle  can  purity  retain  her  whiteness  and 
virtue  her  honest  blush,  it  is  safe  to  predict  that 
only  disappointment  and  defeat  await  those  which 
deny  to  the  Bible  a  place  among  their  books,  and 
refuse  to  count  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  as  one 
of  the  weapons  of  their  warfare.  This  Book  must 
be  heard  at  the  bar  of  our  crowded  life  pleading 
for  the  rights  of  man,  demanding  that  we  should 
respond  to  the  challenge  of  God,   our  common 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  59 

Father,  in  tones  more  tender  than  those  of  Cain, 
when  he  cried :  ''  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  " 
In  the  counsels  of  the  new  and  noble  philanthropy 
which  is  growing  up  about  such  of  our  churches 
as  are  planted  in  the  centers  of  teeming  life,  in 
the  experiments  which  in  the  slums  of  our  great 
cities  are  aiming  to  make  the  desert  rejoice  and 
blossom  as  the  rose,  the  Bible  —  unless  the  his- 
tory of  the  twentieth  century  belie  the  experience 
of  the  century  which  has  preceded  it  —  will  be 
a  powerful  influence  in  promoting  cleaner  lives, 
and  kindlier  feelings,  and  sweeter  and  saner  re- 
lations between  man  and  man.  Until  he  ceases 
to  sin,  until  he  ceases  to  be  a  creature  desiring 
to  know  about  the  God  who  made  him,  until 
he  ceases  to  inquire  whence  he  came  and  whither 
he  goes,  until  then  the  Bible  will  continue  to  be 
of  abiding  significance  to  every  generation  of 
men. 

The  Bible  and  the  Demands  of  the  Soul. 

4.  We  have  now  glanced  at  three  of  the  strong 
forces  which  confront  us.  Each  of  them,  we 
have  seen,  will  increase  the  spread  and  augment 
the  influence  of  the  Bible.  But  not  all  of  them 
combined  could  compensate  for  the  lack  of  the 
last  great  power  to  which  I  turn.  The  question 
with  every  age  is  still  the  question  with  ours. 
The  auguries  are  hopeful  that  this  new  century 
shall  be  marked  by  a  rich  spiritual  life.  The 
quickening  of   the   pulse   of  the  civilized  world 


6o        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

must  have  its  influence  upon  the  religious  fervor 
of  our  times.  It  is  impossible  that  these  powers 
which  are  to  furnish  our  Bible  with  new  ap- 
paratus and  new  leverage  should  not  act  and 
react  on  the  life  which,  while  it  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God,  yet  at  the  same  time  draws  so 
much  of  its  vigor  from  the  human  channels 
through  which  it  flows.  Side  by  side  with  the 
aggressive  spirit  of  the  Church,  do  we  not  detect 
today  a  passionate  longing  for  a  spiritual  quick- 
ening? Yes;  the  question  of  all  others  which 
needs  to  be  answered  is.  Will  the  Bible  continue 
to  respond  to  the  demands  of  the  soul? 

a.  That  it  has  never  failed  to  do  this  is  in 
itself  a  reason  for  anticipating  that  it  never  will. 
That  "  even  in  the  very  thick  of  what  are  called 
the  Dark  Ages  there  never  failed  a  succession 
of  godly  people  whose  best  life  was  fed  from 
the  life  of  God  in  the  Scriptures  "  ^  every  student 
of  history  may  learn  for  himself.  Others  beside 
Max  Miiller  in  their  dislike  of  religious  contro- 
versy have  fallen  back  on  the  simple  faith  which 
they  drew  many  years  ago  from  a  mother's  lips. 
Unshaken  by  hostile  criticisms  of  the  Bible,  they 
have  felt  that  nothing  could  deprive  them  of  what 
they  themselves  have  heard  and  seen  and  handled 
of  the  Word  of  life.    Max  Miiller  says : 

"  I  had  little  to  carry,  no  learned  impedimenta 
to  safeguard  my  faith.  If  a  man  possess  this 
one  pearl  of  great  price  he  may  save  himself  and 

^  The  Ancient  Faith,  etc.,  p.  72. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  6l 

his  treasure,  but  neither  the  tinseled  vestments 
of  a  cardinal  nor  the  triple  tiara  that  crowns  the 
head  of  the  church  will  serve  as  life-belts  in  the 
gales  of  doubt  and  controversy." 

That  this  book  has  met  the  cry  of  the  soul 
in  a  hundred  hours  of  trial  and  when  everything 
else  failed,  is  no  mean  argument  in  favor  of  its 
doing  so  in  continuance.  Gladstone  wrote  in 
his  old  age: 

"If  I  am  asked  what  is  the  remedy  for  the 
sorrows  of  the  heart  —  what  a  man  should  chiefly 
look  to  in  his  progress  through  life  as  the  power 
that  is  to  sustain  him  under  trials,  and  enable 
him  manfully  to  confront  his  afflictions,  I  must 
point  to  something  which  in  a  well-known  hymn 
is  called  '  The  Old,  Old  Story,'  told  in  an  old, 
old  Book,  and  taught  with  an  old,  old  teaching 
which  is  the  greatest  and  best  gift  ever  given  to 
mankind." 

b.  To  an  age  of  doubt  the  ''  Thus  saith  the 
Lord "  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  *'  I  say  unto 
you  "  of  the  New,  will  not  cease  to  be  refreshing. 
Here  is  a  book  which  has  in  it  no  speculative  note. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  dogmatic.  And  the  very 
spirit  that  draws  men  from  the  churches  which 
discuss  and  debate  to  the  church  which  professes 
to  be  infallible,  in  its  healthier  moods  longs  for 
positive  assurance,  not  from  the  lips  of  any 
church  but  from  the  mouth  of  God  himself. 
This  is  what  moved  Thomas  Carlyle  to  credit  the 
Bible  with  possessing  this  special  property,  that 


62        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

it  is  "  written  under  the  eye  of  the  Eternal ;  that 
it  is  of  a  sincerity  Hke  very  death,  through  which, 
as  through  a  window  divinely  opened,  all  men 
could  look  into  the  stillness  of  eternity,  and 
discern  in  glimpses  their  far-distant,  long-forgot- 
ten home."  True  it  is  not  upon  its  claim  so  much 
as  upon  its  contents  that  this  book  takes  its  stand ; 
and  yet  its  claim  to  be  God's  word  to  man,  sus- 
tained by  its  contents,  in  its  turn  gives  to  those 
contents  a  lustrous  significance  which  otherwise 
would  be  lacking. 

c.  And  still,  up  to  this  moment  when  I  speak, 
is  it  not  true  that  the  Bible  does  respond  to  the 
deepest  that  is  in  us  ?  Still,  as  when  the  psalmist 
sang,  deep  crieth  unto  deep  —  the  deep  of  human 
sin  to  the  deep  of  divine  forgiveness,  the  deep  of 
human  need  to  the  deep  of  divine  sufficiency. 
What  great  souls,  such  as  Augustine  and  Luther 
and  Pascal  and  Bunyan,  discovered  in  their 
strenuous,  spiritual  hours,  lowlier  souls  are  still 
finding  in  every  age  and  land.  The  Bible  answers, 
as  does  no  other  book,  to  the  craving  of  the  soul 
for  pardon  and  peace,  for  Hght  and  leading.  You 
must  create  for  us  another  man  before  we  need 
another  Bible. 

The  Stimulation  of  Spiritual  Life. 

d.  Moreover,  as  nothing  else  does,  the  Bible 
stimulates  spiritual  life.  To  open  its  covers  is  to 
rouse  the  mind  to  think,  the  heart  to  feel,  the 
conscience  to  arraign,  the  soul  to  aspire.     That 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  63 

saintly  philanthropist  George  Miiller,  friend  and 
father  to  multitudes  of  orphans,  in  his  experience 
gives  us  our  own : 

"  The  vigor  of  our  spiritual  life  will  be  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  place  held  by  the  Bible  in  our 
life  and  thoughts.  I  can  solemnly  state  this  from 
the  experience  of  fifty-four  years.  Though  en- 
gaged in  the  ministry  of  the  Word  I  neglected 
for  four  years  the  consecutive  reading  of  the 
Bible.  I  was  a  babe  in  knowledge  and  in  grace. 
I  made  no  progress  because  I  neglected  God's 
own  appointed  means  for  nourishing  the  divine 
life.  But  I  was  led  to  see  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  the  instructor,  and  the  Word  the  medium  by 
which  he  teaches.  Spending  three  hours  on  my 
knees,  I  made  such  progress  that  I  learned  more 
in  those  three  hours  than  in  years  before.  In 
July,  1829,  I  began  this  plan  of  reading  from  the 
Old  and  New  Testament.  I  have  read  since  then 
the  Bible  through  one  hundred  times,  and  each 
time  with  increasing  delight.  When  I  begin  it 
afresh,  it  always  seems  like  a  new  book.  I  can- 
not tell  you  how  great  has  been  the  blessing  from 
consecutive,  diligent,  daily  study.  I  have  always 
made  it  a  rule  never  to  begin  work  till  I  have 
had  a  good  season  with  God,  and  then  I  throw 
myself,  with  all  my  heart,  into  this  work  for 
the  day,  with  only  a  few  minutes'  interval  for 
prayer." 

This  power  to  quicken  the  life  of  the  soul  is 
the  glory  of  the  Bible.    As  a  boy  Augustine  hears 


64        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  the  humility  of  Christ  condescending  to  the 
pride  of  man ;  and  through  all  the  years  of  his 
own  intellectual  rebellion  he  cannot  shake  the 
memory  off.  Baxter  plants  his  parish  with 
Bibles,  and  Kidderminster  from  a  place  of  shame- 
ful profligacy  becomes  a  garden  of  the  Lord. 
Here,  by  his  own  confession,  Charles  Darwin 
enters  a  region  where  his  rare  scientific  acumen 
avails  him  nothing.  "  Spiritual  powers,"  says  he, 
"  cannot  be  compared  or  classed  by  the  natural- 
ist." "  It  is  astonishing,"  Spurgeon  says,  "  how 
much  a  man  may  know  of  the  Bible  by  learning 
a  text  a  day,  and  how  much  he  may  know  ex- 
perimentally by  watching  the  events  of  the  day 
and  interpreting  them  in  the  light  of  the  text." 
e.  Today  the  Bible  responds  to  the  prevailing 
belief  in  the  unity  of  God.  The  march  of  the 
centuries  is  ever  forward  toward  a  world-wide 
acceptance  of  monotheism.  This  was  the  Hebrew 
faith,  which  spoke  to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush 
in  the  wilderness,  and  by  the  firmness  with  which 
it  was  held  and  the  clearness  with  which  it  was 
preached,  you  can  measure  the  growth  or  decline 
of  the  Hebrew  people.  For  the  Bible  to  reach 
any  heathen  land  today,  is  for  this  great  central 
truth  to  sound  the  death-knell  of  idolatry,  as 
certainly  as  did  the  preaching  of  Paul  in  Athens 
declare  that,  with  its  strong  insistence  on  the 
one  God  in  whom  all  Hve  and  move  and  have 
their  being,  the  polytheism  of  the  old  world  must 
pass  away. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  65 

f.  But  in  revealing  the  unity  of  God,  this  book 
also  reveals  the  unity  of  man,  and  his  close  rela- 
tion to  his  Creator.  That  God  should  give  His 
Son  for  us  ceases  to  perplex  us  when  we  believe 
in  Him  as  Creator  and  so  loving  man;  and  as 
father  and  so  akin  to  man.  Man  is  never  for  a 
moment  regarded  by  this  Book  apart  from  this 
high  origin  and  this  endearing  relationship. 

The  Bible  Repays  Study. 

g.  That  the  Bible  with  such  a  mission  to  our 
common  humanity  invites  and  repays  careful  and 
systematic  study  should  go  without  saying.  "  My 
brother,"  writes  Edward  Irving,  "  no  man  is  fur- 
nished for  the  ministry  till  he  can  unclasp  his 
pocket  Bible,  and,  wherever  it  opens,  discourse 
from  it  largely  and  spiritually  to  the  people."  ^ 
Epistle  and  Gospel  and  prophecy  and  psalm  *'  be- 
come instinct  with  life  when  a  living  man  takes  it 
in  hand  and  holds  it  up  to  the  light."  To  his 
congregation  in  London,  one  day,  Joseph  Parker 
said :  "  I  spend  nearly  the  whole  of  my  life  in 
making  marginal  notes  upon  my  study  Bible,  and 
it  is  to  me  very  profitable  reading.  That  to  me 
is  the  most  valuable  book  I  have  ever  attempted 
—  to  take  my  heart  and  set  it  on  the  margin  of 
the  Bible,  verse  by  verse." 

h.  Dowered  with  this  spiritual  power,  the 
Bible  may  precede  other  agencies  for  converting 

*  Mrs.  Oliphant's  Life  of  Edward  Irving,  p.  396. 


66         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  world  to  Christ.  It  may  pave  the  way  for 
them.  Long  before  Jesus  was  born,  the  Septua- 
gint  put  the  Scriptures  within  reach  of  the 
heathen;  and  at  a  time  when  the  Jewish  nation 
was  under  a  cloud,  and  when  thick  darkness 
covered  all  other  people,  it  planted  in  the  hearts 
of  men  the  hope  of  the  dawn.^  The  Bible  rather 
than  Wycliffe  deserves  to  be  called  "  The  Day 
Star  of  the  Reformation."  Not  the  translator, 
but  the  translation,  is  the  subject  of  Words- 
worth's great  lines : 

But  to  outweigh  all  harm,  the  sacred  book 
In  dusty  sequestration  wrapt  too  long 
Assumes  the  accent  of  our  native  tongue; 
And  he  who  guides  the  plow  or  wields  the  crook 
With  understanding  spirit  now  may  look 
Upon  her  records,  listen  to  her  song, 
And  sift  her  laws. 

Persecution  wiped  out  Christianity  in  Mada- 
gascar, but  hidden  in  their  turbans  devout  be- 
lievers carried  their  Bibles.  A  copy  of  the  Bible 
bought  by  a  native  and  carried  back  to  his  country 
home,  is  the  means  of  the  conversion  of  a  whole 
village  in  Brazil.  A  copy  found  in  a  cast-off 
garment  leads  numbers  in  a  Chinese  village  into 
the  truth.  Similar  stories  might  be  told  of  every 
quarter  of  the  globe.  The  Word  of  God  is  its  own 
witness,  and  in  its  printed  form  becomes  a  mes- 
senger of  the  gospel. 

^  Barnes,  Two  Thousand  Years  of  Missions  before 
Carey,  p.  25. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  67 

Among  the  ruins  of  Pompeii  a  phial  of  water 
was  once  found.  For  nearly  two  thousand  years 
it  had  remained  there,  since  the  day  when  the  city 
was  buried  in  the  ashes  of  Vesuvius.  But  the 
water,  when  once  again  it  saw  the  light,  was  still 
pure  and  sweet.  So  with  this  Book.  It  is  peren- 
nial. Age  cannot  wither  nor  custom  stale  its 
infinite  variety.  "  Truth,"  as  said  Lord  Bacon, 
"  from  any  other  source  is  like  water  from  a  cis- 
tern, but  truth  drawn  out  of  the  Bible  is  like 
drinking  water  from  a  fountain  immediately 
where  it  springeth."  And  it  is  all-sufficient.  The 
poetry  of  George  Herbert  may  halt,  but  his  piety 
treads  with  confident  step,  as  he  sings : 

The  Bible?    That 's  the  book,  the  book  indeed, 

The  Book  of  books 

On  which  who  looks 
As  he  should  do,  aright,  shall  never  need 

Wish  for  a  better  light 

To  guide  him  in  the  night. 

In  one  of  the  galleries  of  Europe  there  hung 
a  picture  bearing  the  title  "  The  Peaceful  High- 
way," a  bridge  crossing  a  stream  which  parted 
the  one  half  of  an  English  village  from  the  other. 
Centuries  have  glided  away  since  the  foundations 
of  that  bridge  were  laid,  since  its  strong  buttresses 
were  set  to  breast  the  water.  Successive  genera- 
tions have  passed  across  it  from  infancy  to  old 
age.  Again  and  again  has  spring  swollen  the 
stream  which  in  summer  ran  translucent  and 
shallow.     But   the  bridge   has   endured.     These 


68        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Scriptures,  "  letters,"  as  Augustine  calls  them, 
"  letters  from  our  heavenly  country,"  are  just 
such  a  peaceful  highway,  and  today  the  steps 
of  the  world's  need  and  sin  and  hope  and  despair 
and  prayer  and  praise  have  not  ceased  to  tread 
it  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.    They  never  shall. 

Our  century  opened  with  a  quickened  intel- 
lectual life.  That  shall  make  the  Book  clearer 
and  therefore  dearer  than  ever  to  us.  It  opened 
with  broader  prospects  for  the  world  of  action. 
That  shall  discover  fresh  avenues  for  this  Book 
to  the  hearts  of  the  great  human  family.  Our 
century,  let  us  hope  and  believe,  is  waking  also 
to  a  new  and  truer  conception  of  human  brother- 
hood. This  Book  shall  knit  us  closer  to  one 
another.  Finally,  our  century  opened  with  a  rich 
promise  of  spiritual  life.  This  Book  shall  make 
that  Hfe  more  affluent  and  precious.  "  The  Lord," 
in  John  Robinson's  memorable  phrase,  "  has  more 
truth  yet  to  break  forth  from  His  holy  word." 
To  his  students,  John  A.  Broadus  left  no  richer 
legacy  than  his  parting  words :  "  Young  gentle- 
men, if  this  were  the  last  time  I  should  meet  you, 
I  should  feel  amply  repaid  for  consuming  the 
whole  hour  in  endeavoring  to  impress  upon  you 
these  two  things,  true  piety,  and,  like  Apollos, 
to  be  men  '  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,'  '  mighty  in 
the  Scriptures,'  '  mighty  in  the  Scriptures.'  " 

The  signs  of  the  times  are  urgent  in  demand- 
ing a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  far  wider  and 
more  thorough  than  exists  at  present  among  the 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  69 

churches  and  schools  of  our  land.  Were  there 
time,  it  might  be  well  for  us  to  inquire  whether 
the  Bible  is  as  familiar  to  the  people  of  our 
country  today  as  it  was  to  the  peasants  and  ap- 
prentices of  England  in  the  days  of  Queen 
Elizabeth. 

"  My  only  hope,"  said  Gladstone,  looking  back 
over  a  strenuous  life  and  speaking  as  a  statesman 
and  as  a  philanthropist  not  less  than  as  a  Chris- 
tian, "  my  only  hope  for  the  world  is  in  bringing 
the  human  mind  into  contact  with  divine  reve- 
lation." How  shall  this  be  done?  No  longer 
by  great  scholars  alone,  or  by  historic  churches, 
or  by  the  mighty  influence  of  mighty  kings  and 
conquerors.  Today,  as  Canon  Edmonds  insisted 
when  speaking  before  the  Ecumenical  Conference 
in  New  York: 

"  It  is  the  common  task  of  Christendom,  and 
the  lowly  and  loftier  alike  are  members  of  this 
greatest  of  cooperative  societies.  All  missionary 
work  will  eventually  be  tested  by  the  conformity 
of  its  result  to  the  divine  model  of  life  and  char- 
acter set  before  us  in  the  holy  Book.  No  mission- 
ary is  better  employed  than  the  competent  trans- 
lator. No  missionary  society  has  fully  risen  to 
its  ideal  which  has  not  contributed  a  man  or 
men  to  this  great  Pentecostal  revelation  of  the 
mind  of  God  to  the  heart  of  His  creatures.  Be- 
tween us  all,  we  reckon  over  four  hundred  of 
these  divine  voices,  and  none  of  them  is  without 
signification.     Each  of  them  bears  witness  to  the 


70        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

love  that  God  hath  to  us ;  each  bears  witness  also 
that  no  race  or  language  is  now  common  or 
unclean." 

The  Choicest  Heritage. 

Surely  this  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter. The  Bible  must  be  put  foremost  in  our 
preaching.  Biblical  exposition  must  regain  its 
ascendency  in  the  pulpit.  The  Bible  must  be  in 
the  hands  of  our  congregations.  Bible  reading 
must  again  be  the  rule  and  not  the  exception  in 
our  pews.  The  Bible  must  be  found  in  our  Sun- 
day-schools. Not  lesson  helps,  but  the  Book  itself 
must  be  the  basis  of  devout  and  earnest  and  in- 
telligent study.  The  Bible,  in  some  form,  must 
be  as  familiar  to  our  public  schools  as  are  the 
other  classics  of  our  literature.  Once  more,  as 
in  the  days  of  Pilgrim  and  Puritan,  it  must  be 
counted  the  choicest  heritage  of  the  nation.  With 
the  living  church  does  it  lie  to  see  that  all  this 
is  done.  I  am  confident  that  the  appeal  to  those 
who  themselves  have  tasted  of  this  good  Word 
of  life  will  not  be  in  vain. 

If  the  forecast  which  I  have  taken  in  this 
chapter  be  correct,  we  have  nothing  to  fear,  but 
only  everything  to  hope,  as  to  the  Bible  in  the 
twentieth  century.  With  each  fresh  year  in  the 
century's  history  the  Bible  will  renew  its  youth. 
Is  the  world  ready  for  the  Bible  as  never  before? 
As  never  before  the  Bible  is  ready  for  the  world. 
Were  there  ever  so  many  golden  gates  of  oppor- 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  71 

tunity  wide  open  as  at  this  hour?  Never  as  at 
this  hour  was  the  Bible  so  splendidly  equipped  for 
entering  these  gates.  The  supply  is  adequate 
to  the  demand.  And  as  nothing  else  it  answers 
and  satisfies  the  demand. 


We  search  the  world  for  truth;  we  cull 
The  good,  the  pure,  the  beautiful, 
From  graven  stone  and  written  scroll, 
From  all  old  flower  fields  of  the  soul; 
And  weary  seekers  of  the  best, 
We  come  back  laden  from  our  quest, 
To  find  that  all  the  ages  said 
Is  in  the  book  our  mothers  read. 


Ill 

W^t  Pitile  tlje  ?|ope  of  tfje  OTorlb 

JAMES   ORR 

The  Bible  influences  the  world  through  the 
many-sided  revelations  of  God's  character  and 
will  it  contains ;  it  specially  influences  it  through 
the  historical  image,  and  the  moral  and  spiritual 
teaching,  of  Christ  in  the  Gospels,  and  through 
the  hopes,  promises,  exhortations,  and  motives,  in 
which  the  Apostolic  writings  abound.  We  speak 
with  gratitude  of  the  profound  influence  which 
has  been  exercised  on  the  world  by  Christianity. 
But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  Christianity  comes 
to  men,  and  is  kept  alive  in  their  memories 
and  hearts,  only  through  the  Bible  ^ — through 
the  possession,  translation,  diffusion,  and  de- 
vout and  prayerful  reading,  preaching,  study, 
and  teaching  of  the  written  Word.  Without  the 
Bible  to  revert  to,  keeping  the  truth  fresh  and 
living,  the  image  of  the  Master  would  long  since 
have  been  blurred  and  distorted  beyond  recog- 
nition. His  Gospel  would  have  been  perverted 
beyond  recovery  by  corrupt  human  tradition.  His 
doctrines  and  moral  teaching,  with  those  of  His 


74         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Apostles,  would  have  been  buried  under  a  moun- 
tain-load of  human  inventions. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  it  is  the  Bible  which  has  preserved  Christi- 
anity to  the  world.  If,  as  we  believe,  the  re- 
ligion of  Jesus  is  the  hope  of  the  world,  it  is 
the  possession  of  the  Bible  conveying  and  main- 
taining the  knowledge  of  that  religion,  which 
makes  the  hope  possible.  In  saying  that  Chris- 
tianity is  the  hope  of  the  world,  and  that  the 
Bible  is  the  hope  of  the  world,  we  use  nearly 
equivalent  expressions. 

Comparison  with  the  Sacred  Books  of  Other 
Religions. 

A  powerful  argument  for  the  divineness  of  the 
Bible  might  be  drawn  from  a  simple  comparison 
of  the  Bible  with  the  sacred  books  of  other  re- 
ligions. There  is  a  large  group  of  religions  in 
the  world  which  students  of  the  subject  are  accus- 
tomed to  designate  "  book-religions  "  —  this  for 
the  reason  that  they  possess,  like  our  own,  sacred 
books  or  scriptures.  Such  books  are  the  Hindu 
Vedas,  the  Parsee  Zend-Avesta,  the  Tripitakas 
and  other  sacred  writings  of  the  Buddhists,  the 
Mohammedan  Koran.  Whatever  light  of  wis- 
dom or  gleams  of  truth  about  God  and  duty  such 
books  contain  —  and  we  need  grudge  to  them  no 
real  "  gems  "  of  this  kind  they  possess  —  there 
is,  as  every  candid  judge  will  be  ready  to  admit, 
no  true  comparison  between  these  ethnic  scrip- 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  75 

tures,  even  at  their  best,  and  the  collection  of 
writings  which  we  term  pre-eminently  the  Bible 
—  the  Book.  Whether  they  be  regarded  as  litera- 
ture, as  history,  or  as  means  of  conveying  mes- 
sages of  truth,  the  unique  superiority  of  the  Bible 
stands  out  unchallengeable. 

Take  the  Bible,  for  instance,  as  history.  It  is 
the  simple  fact  that  there  is  nothing  that  can  be 
properly  called  history  in  these  other  sacred  books 
of  the  world.  They  are,  as  every  student  of  them 
knows,  for  the  most  part  jumbles  of  heteroge- 
neous material,  loosely  placed  together,  without 
order,  continuity,  or  unity  of  any  kind.  There 
is  no  order,  progress,  or  real  connection  of  parts. 
The  Koran,  e.  g.,  is  a  miscellany  of  disjointed 
pieces,  loosely  placed  together,  arranged  chiefly 
in  order  of  length.  The  Bible,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  a  history  with  a  beginning,  a  middle,  and  an 
end;  a  history  of  revelation;  the  history  of  a 
developing  purpose  of  God,  working  up  to  a  goal 
in  the  full-orbed  discovery  of  the  will  of  God  for 
man's  salvation  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  There 
is  nothing  like  this,  nothing  even  approaching  it, 
in  any  other  collection  of  sacred  books  in  the 
world. 

As  distinctive  in  its  character  is  the  message 
of  the  Bible.  The  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  mere 
secular  wisdom,  though  much  secular  knowledge 
is  embodied  in  it ;  not  a  book  merely  of  grand 
thoughts  about  religion,  or  of  theories  and  specu- 
lations about  divine  things ;    not  a  book  simply 


76         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  fine  ethical  teaching,  of  noble  biography,  of 
soul-stirring  narrative.  It  is,  as  just  said,  pre- 
eminently a  book  of  revelation ;  of  God's  historic 
revelations  down  through  the  ages  to  the  coming 
of  Christ  and  the  advent  of  the  Spirit.  These 
revelations  form  a  crisis.  Each  adds  something 
to  those  which  went  before;  each  carries  the 
course  of  revelation  a  little  further ;  each  fore- 
shadows a  yet  richer  development  in  the  future; 
and  when  the  whole  is  before  us,  we  see  in  it 
the  unfolding  of  a  great  purpose  which  has  its 
consummation  in  Christ  and  His  redemption  — 
a  purpose  the  very  character  of  which  is  the 
guarantee  to  us  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  God,  not 
the  thought  of  man. 

The  Claim  of  History  and  Influence. 

This  imperfect  glance  suffices  to  show  the 
uniqueness  of  the  Bible,  and  the  inestimable 
treasure  we  possess  in  it.  We  are  now  to  see  how 
the  Bible  verifies  its  exceptional  character  and 
claims  by  its  history  and  influence,  and  by  the 
blessings  it  confers. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Bible,  re- 
garded simply  as  a  book,  has  had  an  unexampled 
place  in  history.  Its  authors  were  not  learned 
men,  as  the  world  counts  learning;  yet  their 
writings  have  been  preserved,  read,  copied,  trans- 
lated, and  spread  abroad  to  the  utmost  corners 
of  the  earth,  as  no  works  of  philosophers  or 
sages,  poets  or  orators,  historians  or  moralists, 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  77 

have  ever  been.  Take  the  witness  of  manuscripts. 
While  of  some  important  classical  works  only 
one  manuscript  is  known  to  exist,  and  ten  or 
fifteen  is  thought  a  large  number  for  others  — 
few  of  these  dating  beyond  the  tenth  century  of 
our  era  —  the  manuscripts  of  whole  or  parts  of 
the  New  Testament  are  already  reckoned  by 
thousands,  the  oldest  of  which  go  back  to  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  and  parts  are  still 
older. 

Or  take  the  test  of  translation  as  a  mark  of 
this  book's  influence.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing 
for  a  popular  book  to  be  translated  into  many 
languages.  Here,  again,  however,  the  Bible  has 
a  record  which  casts  every  other  into  the  shade. 
The  books  of  the  New  Testament  had  hardly 
been  put  together  in  the  second  century  in  what 
we  call  the  Canon  before  we  find  translations 
made  of  them  into  Latin  and  Syriac  and  Egyp- 
tian, and  by-and-by  into  Gothic  and  other  bar- 
barous tongues.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  notwith- 
standing the  discouragements  put  upon  the  pos- 
session and  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  we  find 
translations  made  into  nearly  all  the  leading  lan- 
guages of  Europe.  With  the  art  of  printing  the 
work  of  translation  received  a  new  impetus. 
Today  there  is  not  a  language  in  the  civilized 
world,  hardly  a  language  among  uncivilized 
tribes  of  any  importance,  into  which  this  mar- 
velous book  has  not  been  rendered.  Whatever 
man  may  say  of  decay  of  faith  in  the  Bible,  it 


78        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

is,  as  remarked  earlier,  the  undeniable  fact  that 
its  circulation  in  the  different  countries  and  lan- 
guages of  the  world  today  outstrips  all  previous 
records.  The  reports,  e.  g.,  of  the  three  great 
Bible  Societies  —  the  British  and  Foreign,  the 
American,  and  the  National  Bible  Society  of 
Scotland  —  show  for  the  year  1905  the  enormous 
total  of  over  9,000,000  of  issues  of  the  whole  or 
parts  of  the  Scriptures  in  European  and  in 
Eastern   lands! 

Every  other  test  we  can  apply  to  the  Bible 
yields  a  similar  result.  No  book  has  ever  been 
so  minutely  studied,  has  had  so  many  books  writ- 
ten on  it,  has  given  birth  to  so  many  commen- 
taries and  works  of  exposition,  has  evoked  such 
keen  discussion,  has  founded  so  vast  a  literature 
of  hymns,  liturgies,  works  of  devotion,  has  been 
so  determinedly  assailed,  has  rallied  such  splen- 
did defenses,  as  the  Bible! 

Why  do  I  mention  these  things?  Not  merely 
for  their  own  interest  as  facts,  but  as  proofs  of 
the  unconquerable  vitality  which  resides  in  this 
book,  of  the  universal  appeal  it  makes  to  human 
hearts,  and  of  the  need  of  ascribing  the  power 
it  exercises  to  some  higher  than  neutral  cause. 
Genius  alone  in  the  writers,  even  if  they  were 
allowed  to  take  rank  as  men  of  genius,  would 
not  explain  it.  What  boasts  are  sometimes  made 
of  the  genius  and  scholarship  ranged  against  the 
Bible!  Yet,  as  I  said  at  the  commencement,  the 
Bible  holds  on  its  career  of  conquest  unchecked, 

^  Critiques  and  Addresses,  p.  61. 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  79 

while  the  works  of  its  assailants,  after  a  genera- 
tion or  two  —  often  much  less  time  —  lie  on  the 
shelves  unread.  These  books  have  no  message 
to  the  world,  as  the  Bible  has.  The  Bible  is  a 
book,  as  experience  shows,  for  all  races ;  and  it 
has  this  character  because,  like  the  Gospel  it  en- 
shrines, it  goes  down  beneath  all  differences  of 
rank,  age,  sex,  culture,  to  that  which  is  deepest, 
most  universal  in  man.  It  bears  translation 
into  all  languages,  because  the  language  of  the 
deepest  things  of  the  soul  is,  all  the  world  over, 
one. 

This  vital  penetrative  character  of  the  Bible, 
attesting  its  divine  quality,  shows  itself  not  sim- 
ply in  the  place  it  holds  in  history,  but  in  the 
unexampled  character  of  the  influence  it  has  been 
enabled  to  exert.  To  tell  what  the  Bible  has  been 
and  done  for  the  world  would  be  to  rewrite  in 
large  part  the  history  of  modern  civilization ;  to 
re-tell  the  story  of  Christian  missions,  including 
those  which  brought  the  Gospel  to  our  own 
shores;  to  extract  the  finest  qualities  in  much 
of  our  best  literature;  to  lay  bare  the  inner 
springs  of  the  lives  of  those  who  have  labored 
best  and  most  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  well- 
being  of  their  kind.  Trace  back  to  their  springs 
the  great  movements,  the  great  struggles  for  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  in  our  own  and  other  lands, 
the  social  and  humanitarian  movements  which 
were  the  distinction  of  the  past  century,  the 
sources  will  be  found  ultimately  in  the  high 
mountain  levels  of  the  Bible's  teaching.    And  say 


8o        THE  BIBLE   IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

what  men  will,  it  is  the  Bible  which  is  the  source 
of  our  highest  social  and  national  aspirations 
still. 

The  Testimony  of  Huxley. 

I  shall  return  immediately,  with  more  particu- 
larity, to  the  proof  of  these  statements.  But  I 
may  here  cite  the  witness  of  one  who  will  not, 
I  think,  be  regarded  as  unduly  biased  in  favor 
of  the  Bible  —  I  mean  Professor  Huxley. 

Secularist  and  agnostic  as  he  was.  Professor 
Huxley,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  expressed 
himself  in  very  remarkable  terms  on  this  un- 
paralleled influence  of  the  Bible.  Here  is  one 
of  his  latest  utterances : 

'*  Throughout  the  history  of  the  Western 
world,"  he  says,  "  the  Scriptures,  Jewish  and 
Christian,  have  been  the  greatest  instigators  of 
revolt  against  the  worst  forms  of  clerical  and 
political  despotism.  The  Bible  has  been  the 
Magna  Charta  of  the  poor,  and  of  the  oppressed ; 
down  to  modern  times  no  State  has  had  a  consti- 
tution in  which  the  interests  of  the  people  are 
so  largely  taken  into  account,  in  which  the  duties, 
so  much  more  than  the  privileges,  of  rulers  are 
insisted  upon,  as  that  drawn  up  for  Israel  in 
Deuteronomy  and  Leviticus;  nowhere  is  the 
fundamental  truth  that  the  welfare  of  the  State, 
in  the  long  run,  depends  on  the  uprightness  of  the 
citizen  so  strongly  laid  down.  Assuredly  the 
Bible  talks  no  trash  about  the  rights  of  man; 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  8i 

but  it  insists  upon  the  equality  of  duties,  on  the 
liberty  to  bring  about  that  righteousness  which 
is  somewhat  different  from  strugghng  for 
'  rights ' ;  on  the  fraternity  of  taking  thought 
for  one's  neighbor  as  for  one's  self."  ^ 

Here  is  another  passage.  Arguing  in  one  of 
his  essays  for  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  the 
schools,  Professor  Huxley  bids  us  consider  "  that 
for  three  centuries  this  Book  has  been  woven 
into  the  life  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in 
English  history;  that  it  has  become  the  national 
epic  of  Britain  .  .  .  that  it  is  written  in  the 
noblest  and  purest  English,  and  abounds  in  ex- 
quisite beauties  of  mere  literary  form  "  ;  and  he 
asks,  "  By  the  study  of  what  other  book  could 
children  be  so  much  humanized,  and  made  to  feel 
that  each  figure  in  that  vast  historical  procession 
fills,  like  themselves,  but  a  momentary  space  in 
the  interval  between  two  eternities,  and  earns  the 
blessings  or  the  curses  of  all  times,  according  to 
its  efforts  to  do  good  and  hate  evil,  even 
as  they  also  are  earning  their  payment  for  their 
work?  "  ^ 

Are  not  statements  like  these  the  best  reply  to 
such  strictures  on  the  "  narrowness  "  of  Christian 
ethics?  Can  a  religion  be  really  regarded  as 
inimical  to  political  freedom,  to  duties  of  citizen- 
ship, to  education,  to  patriotism,  which  produces 
results  like  the  above  ? 

1  Essays  upon  Some  Controverted  Questions,  Prologue, 
PP-  52-53- 


82        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

The  World's  Debt  to  the  Bible. 

Let  me  now  trace  a  little  more  in  detail  some 
of  the  actual  blessings  which  the  world  owes  to 
the  Bible.  For  practical  purposes,  the  influence 
of  the  Bible  and  the  influence  of  Christianity 
are,  as  I  have  said,  convertible  ideas.  It  will  be 
convenient  for  me  to  speak,  first,  of  what  the 
world  owes  to  the  religion  of  Christ  in  a  tem- 
poral respect  —  on  the  plane  of  moral  and  social 
benefit;  then  of  what  the  world  owes  to  it  in 
a  spiritual  respect,  or  in  regard  to  its  eternal 
hopes. 

There  are,  I  know  very  well,  and  we  are  never 
allowed  to  forget  it,  two  sides  to  this  picture. 
Deeds  have  been  done  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and 
of  His  official  Church,  which  reflect  eternal  dis- 
honor upon  humanity.  It  is  a  dark  picture  the 
historian  has  to  draw  of  the  abounding  corrup- 
tion, the  dead  formalism,  the  gross  immorality 
of  certain  ages  of  the  Church;  of  the  frightful 
evils  of  the  periods  of  Roman  and  Byzantine 
ascendency;  of  the  spirit  of  intolerance  and 
persecution  directed  against  heretics  and  unbe- 
lievers, and  often  against  Christ's  own  faithful 
witnesses,  when  truth  had  to  be  confessed  in 
peril  of  the  dungeon  and  the  stake;  of  super- 
stitions like  witchcraft ;  of  the  feuds  and  divisions 
of  churches  and  sects;  of  the  moral  blots,  the 
inconsistencies,  the  festering  sores  of  vice  and 
misery,  of  our  so-called  Christian  civilizations. 
We  acknowledge  it  all,  and  blush  in  the  acknowl- 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  83 

edgment.  To  dwell  on  such  things  is  the  stock 
in  trade  of  the  anti-Christian  agitator.  But  in 
this  he  is  unjust.  A  fair  mind  will  always  dis- 
tinguish —  or  try  to  distinguish  —  between  effects 
really  due  to  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Christ's 
religion,  and  the  false  and  perverted  readings  of 
that  religion  given  by  those  who  had  nothing  in 
common  with  its  spirit,  and  made  it  too  often 
the  engine  of  their  own  temporal  ambitions. 
Much  human  infirmity  and  folly  must  be  stripped 
off  if  we  are  to  do  justice  to  this  religion  as  it 
lies  before  us  in  the  Bible.  To  Christ  himself 
we  appeal,  as  against  the  people  who  deny  Him. 
If,  then,  we  look  to  the  Gospel  as  it  came  forth 
in  its  purity  from  the  lips  of  Christ  Himself  and 
of  His  apostles,  what  do  we  find  it  teaching? 
What  ideas  did  it  communicate  to  the  world? 
I  look  at  the  subject,  first,  as  proposed  from  the 
standpoint  of  moral  and  social  benefit. 

The  World  into  which  Christianity  Came. 

To  understand  what  the  religion  of  the  Bible 
has  accomplished,  we  have  to  think  of  the  kind 
of  world  into  which  Christianity  entered.  It 
found  a  world  in  the  last  stage  of  dissolution 
—  in  a  state  of  utter  decrepitude  and  decay. 
The  old  religions  had  lost  their  power,  and  with 
religion  the  foundations  of  morals  were  well-nigh 
universally  loosened.  Dissoluteness  flooded  so- 
ciety. Even  duty  to  the  State  —  the  one  duty 
that  was  held  supreme  —  was  breaking  up  in  all 


84         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

directions.  There  was  little  sense  of  individual 
right.  In  the  family,  e.  g.,  the  father  held  all 
power  in  his  own  hands,  and  wife  and  children 
and  slaves  were  subject  to  his  absolute  authority. 
Infanticide  and  exposure  of  children  were  com- 
mon and  recognized  practices.  The  social  struc- 
ture was  built  on  slavery,  and  slaves  had  no 
protection  of  any  kind.  Work  was  held  to  be 
beneath  the  dignity  of  citizens,  who,  if  not  pos- 
sessed of  wealth,  claimed  to  be  supported  by  the 
State.  The  favorite  amusements  of  the  populace 
were  the  sanguinary  spectacles  of  the  amphi- 
theater. Marriage  had  fallen  into  such  disuse 
that,  though  the  emperors  set  a  premium  on  mar- 
riage, people  could  hardly  be  induced  to  enter 
into  the  bond.  Worse  than  all,  heathen  society 
had  not  within  itself  —  nor  was  it  able  to  find 
—  any  principle  of  regeneration,  for  religion  had 
lost  its  hold,  the  moral  codes  of  the  philosophers 
were  without  sufficient  sanction,  and  there  were 
not  those  ideas  of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the 
individual  which  could  create  any  noble  or  sus- 
tained efforts  on  his  behalf.  Noble  examples 
of  virtue,  no  doubt,  there  still  were ;  friendship, 
piety  of  a  sort,  family  affections,  a  deploring  on 
the  part  of  the  better  spirits  of  the  evils  they 
could  do  nothing  to  check  or  subdue.  But  ancient 
civilization  had  played  itself  out  in  both  thought 
and  life,  and  had  not  a  spring  of  renewal  from 
which  recovery  could  come. 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  85 

What  did  Christianity  Bring? 

What  now  did  Christianity  bring  to  this  effete 
and  sinking  heathenism? 

It  brought  for  one  thing  a  totally  new  idea 
of  man  himself  as  a  being  of  infinite  dignity 
and  immortal  worth.  It  taught  that  every  man, 
as  made  in  God's  image,  and  capable  of  eternal 
life,  had  an  infinite  value  —  a  value  which  made 
it  worth  while  for  God's  own  Son  to  die  for  him. 
It  taught  that  no  man  was  worthless  in  God's 
sight;  that  every  man,  however  lost  in  sin,  was 
redeemable,  and  that  no  efforts  should  be  spared 
for  his  redemption.  It  brought  back  the  well- 
nigh  lost  sense  of  responsibility  and  accounta- 
bility to  God.  It  breathed  into  the  world  a  new 
spirit  of  love  and  charity  —  something  wonderful 
in  the  eyes  of  the  heathen,  who  looked  on  in 
amazement  as  they  saw  institutions  growing  up 
around  them  such  as  paganism  had  never  heard 
of;  institutions  for  the  care  of  the  poor,  the  or- 
phan, the  aged,  the  helpless,  the  fallen,  the  leper ; 
that  wealth  of  charitable  and  beneficent  institu- 
tions with  which  Christian  lands  are  full.^  It 
flashed  into  men's  souls  a  new  moral  ideal,  and 
set  up  a  standard  of  truth,  integrity,  and  purity, 
which  has  acted  as  an  elevating  force  on  moral 

^  Cf.  Lecky's  History  of  European  Morals,  I.,  p.  412;  H., 
pp.  84-91,  107.  Uhlhorn's  Christian  Charity  in  the  Ancient 
Church.  "  It  has  covered  the  globe,"  says  Lecky,  "  with 
countless  institutions  of  mercy,  absolutely  unknown  in  the 
whole  pagan  world"  (II.,  p.  91;  cf.  p.  107).  Thirty  years 
ago  hospitals  were  unknown  in  Japan. 


86        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

conceptions  till  this  hour.  It  restored  woman  to 
her  rightful  place  by  man's  side  as  his  spiritual 
helpmate  and  equal.  It  taught  care  for  the  chil- 
dren, and  created  that  best  of  'God's  blessings  on 
earth,  the  Christian  home.  It  taught  the  slave 
his  spiritual  freedom  as  a  member  of  the  King- 
dom of  God;  gave  him  an  equal  place  with  his 
master  in  the  Church ;  and  struck  at  the  founda- 
tions of  slavery  by  its  doctrines  of  the  natural 
brotherhood  and  dignity  of  man.  It  created  self- 
respect,  and  a  sense  of  duty  in  the  use  of  one's 
powers  for  self-support  and  the  benefit  of  others ; 
urged  to  honest  labor ;  and  in  a  myriad  ways,  by 
direct  teaching,  by  the  protest  of  holy  lives,  and 
by  its  general  spirit,  struck  at  the  evils,  the  cor- 
ruptions, the  malpractices,  and  cruelties  of  the 
time. 

In  all  these  and  in  numberless  other  ways  that 
cannot  now  be  mentioned,  Christianity,  as  im- 
partial investigators  recognize,  entered  as  a  revo- 
lutionizing, regenerating,  and  renewing  principle 
into  that  ancient  society,  and  produced  effects 
which  have  borne  fruit  in  the  new  world  that  has 
sprung  up  on  the  ruins  of  the  old. 

Christianity  the  Basis  of  Modern  Civilization. 

Once  the  ideas  I  have  mentioned  had  been 
introduced,  and  had  taken  possession  of  the 
world,  they  liberated  other  forces,  and  gave  birth 
to  new  ideas,  which  have  cooperated  with  them 
in  advancing  the  progress  of  the  race;    but  no 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  87 

one  who  goes  to  the  bottom  of  what  is  distinctive 
of  our  modern  civiHzation  will  deny  that  the  ideas 
I  have  named  are  the  basis  on  which  our  modern 
civilization  rests,  nor  will  any  one  deny  that, 
however  self-evident  some  of  them  may  now 
seem  to  us,  it  was  Christianity  which  practically 
put  the  world  in  possession  of  them,  and  still 
sustains  them  in  men's  minds  as  living  convictions. 
These  ideas  are  now,  in  large  part,  I  say,  the 
common  possession  of  mankind.  They  exist  and 
operate  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  visible  Church. 
They  have  been  taken  up  and  contended  for  by 
men  outside  the  Church  —  unbelievers  even  — 
when  the  Church  itself  had  become  unfaithful 
to  them.  But  none  the  less  are  they  of  Christian 
parentage.  They  are  the  principles  of  the  Bible 
—  of  the  Gospel.  They  he  at  the  basis  of  our 
modern  assertion  of  equal  rights ;  of  rights  of 
conscience;  of  justice  to  the  individual  in  social 
and  State  arrangements ;  of  the  desire  for 
brotherhood  and  peace  and  amity  among  classes 
and  nations.  It  is  the  Christian  leaven  that  is 
fermenting,  sometimes  in  turbid  enough  forms,  in 
all  this  social  seething  we  see  going  on  around 
us ;  Christian  ideas  which  are  propelling  the  race 
on  in  its  march  of  progress ;  Christian  love  which 
is  sustaining  the  best  and  purest  and  most  self- 
sacrificing  efforts  to  raise  the  fallen,  rescue  the 
drunkard,  and  make  the  condition  of  the  race 
happier  and  better.  And  if  the  Christian  root 
of  these   ideas   and   efforts    were   withdrawn,    it 


88        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

would  be  seen  how  many  of  them  would  come 
to  be  laughed  at  as  baseless  ideals,  and  a  very 
different  range  of  ideas  and  motives  would  take 
their  place;  how,  in  their  race  for  riches,  lust 
for  pleasure,  and  greed  of  power,  men  would  be 
willing  to  trample  the  poor  and  helpless  under 
their  feet,  if  only  they  could  by  that  means  raise 
themselves  a  little  higher. 

We  thus  see  that,  even  in  a  temporal  respect, 
the  Bible  and  its  teachings  are  the  grand  civilizing 
agency  of  the  world.  The  experience  of  the  past 
proves  it.  Christian  missions,  with  their  benign 
effects  in  the  spread  of  education,  the  checking  of 
social  evils  and  barbarities,  the  creation  of  trade 
and  industry,  the  change  in  the  status  of  women, 
the  advance  in  the  social  and  civilized  life  gen- 
erally, prove  it.  We  are  still  far  enough  from 
the  goal,  God  knows.  But  contrast  ancient  pagan 
with  modern  society,  with  all  its  faults,  and  mark 
how  far  we  have  already  traveled ;  contrast 
Christian  nations  with  nations  yet  in  the  night 
of  heathenism  —  even  with  such  lands  as  India 
and  China  —  and  note  the  contrast  in  the  life  of 
today;  take  the  Christian  nations  themselves, 
and  see  how  it  is  those  that  have  drunk  most 
deeply  into  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  that  most  revere 
His  word,  respect  His  day,  and  observe  most 
purely  His  worship,  that  stand  foremost  in  all 
the  elements  that  constitute  true  progress  —  fore- 
most in  enlightenment,  in  wealth,  in  virtue,  in 
social    order    and    happiness;     take,    finally,    the 


THE  HOPE   OF  THE   WORLD  89 

godly  and  godless  classes  in  the  same  society, 
and  mark  how  the  tone  of  our  public  life  and 
the  stability  of  our  institutions  are  strengthened 
by  the  former,  and  are  daily  put  in  jeopardy  by 
the  latter! 

"  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  to  hate  evil "  (Prov. 
8:13);  and  in  proportion  as  that  fear  spreads 
itself  through  a  community,  the  community  will 
be  stable,  progressive,  prosperous.  Given  a  Bible- 
reading,  Bible-loving  people,  and  it  will  not  be 
long  before  such  a  people  is  found  well-housed, 
well-clothed,  industrious,  and  content ;  before  the 
demons  of  drink  and  poverty  disappear  from  its 
towns;  before  schools  and  colleges  spring  up  to 
educate  its  children ;  before  all  the  tokens ,  of  a 
genuine  prosperity  are  visible  within  its  borders. 

The  Message  of  Religion  and  Eternal  Hope. 

Thus  far  I  have  been  speaking  of  the  tem- 
poral advantages  accruing  from  the  religion  of 
the  Bible.  But  the  chief  blessing  of  the  possession 
of  the  Bible  is  not  told  till  we  speak  of  what 
the  world  owes  to  it  in  a  religious  respect,  and 
in  regard  to  its  eternal  hopes.  The  two  things 
are  connected,  for  the  moral  reforms  wrought  by 
Christianity  can  never  be  dissociated  from  its 
religious  ideas.  Nothing  elevates  the  mind  or 
raises  the  affections  so  much  as  right  thoughts 
of  God.  In  the  light  of  his  relation  to  God,  man 
attains  to  the  sense  of  his  dignity  and  worth  as 
a  moral  being,   and   feels  that  life  has   an   end 


90        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

which  makes  it  worth  living.  The  chief  gain  of 
the  Bible,  therefore,  is  still  untold  when  we  speak 
only  of  its  literary  and  moral  and  civilizing 
effects.  It  is  not  disclosed  till  we  think  of  its 
message  of  the  love  of  God,  and  that  light  of 
eternal  hope  which  streams  from  it  into  a  world 
which,  despite  all  speculations  of  reason,  and 
brilliance  of  civilization,  would  be  hopelessly  dark 
as  respects  the  future  without  it. 

It  is  the  Bible  which  gives  the  knowledge  of 
God.  I  need  not  do  more  than  lift  a  corner 
of  the  veil  which  at  this  distance  of  time  hides 
from  us  the  condition  of  the  ancient  world  in 
a  religious  respect.  What  a  spectacle  of  ignorance 
of  the  true  God  and  of  the  way  of  life  it  is  which 
presents  itself !  In  one  place  it  is  the  sun,  moon, 
and  planets  which  are  the  objects  of  worship. 
Elsewhere,  as  in  Egypt,  temples  are  built  to 
four-footed  beasts  and  creeping  things  of  the 
earth  (cf.  Rom.  1:23).  In  other  places,  as  in 
India,  the  great  natural  objects  —  the  sky,  the 
dawn,  the  rain,  the  rivers,  fire,  etc.  —  are  the 
favorite  deities.  In  Greece  men  adore  gods 
sculptured  in  forms  of  human  beauty.  In  Rome 
gods  of  all  countries  are  swept  together,  and  wor- 
ship is  paid  to  them.  Round  the  roots  of  these 
religions  clung  innumerable  superstitions;  the 
rites  of  many  of  them  were  licentious  and  revolt- 
ing; in  the  service  of  gods  of  lust  and  gods  of 
wine,  the  most  shameful  orgies  were  enacted. 
Where,  from  the  list  of  these  heathen  gods,  or 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  91 

in  the  stories  told  of  them,  could  men  get  one 
idea  to  elevate  them,  one  impulse  to  raise  them 
above  themselves  to  nobler  life?  When  Plato 
sketched  an  ideal  Republic,  his  first  concern  was 
to  banish  the  myths  of  the  gods  out  of  it.^  Think 
of  England  when  the  light  of  Christianity- 
first  broke  upon  it.  Druid  priests  chant  their 
mysterious  songs,  go  through  their  mystic  cere- 
monies in  dim  forest  recesses,  plunge  the  sacri- 
ficial knife  into  shrieking  human  victims.  The 
tribes  who  supplant  them  bring  over  their  wild 
Scandinavian  traditions  ;  sing  the  praises  of  Thor 
and  Odin;  revel  in  the  prospect  of  a  Valhalla, 
where  they  will  drink  blood  from  the  skulls  of 
their  slain  enemies!  Look  at  the  lands  which 
lie  even  yet  in  the  shadow  of  death  of  heathenism. 
See  their  lords  many  and  their  gods  many,  their 
cruel  practices,  their  revolting  superstitions.  As 
every  student  of  social  progress  knows,  their 
false  religions  rest  on  these  lands  with  the  weight 
of  an  incubus,  and  there  can  be  no  real  progress 
till  this  incubus  is  shaken  off. 

It  is  the  poet  Milton  who  in  his  great  Ode 
on  the  Nativity  has  described  the  dire  consterna- 
tion in  the  ranks  of  the  heathen  deities  at  the 
announcement  of  the  birth  of  Christ.  Christ 
came,  and  as  His  religion  spread,  the  vapors  of 
a  dense  heathen  superstition  rolled  away  before 
it,  and  gave  place  to  a  purer  faith  and  to  a 
nobler  worship.     Corruption,  as  we  know,  early 

1  Republic,  Bk.  H. 


92  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

seized  on  Christianity  also,  and  in  the  course  of 
centuries  attained  huge  proportions.  But  we 
know,  too,  how,  from  time  to  time,  as  at  the 
Reformation,  through  the  force  of  that  vitality 
within  it,  which  is  but  another  name  for  the 
abiding  presence  of  God's  Spirit  in  its  midst, 
Christianity  has  risen  up,  and  thrown  the  worst 
of  these  corruptions  off,  and  come  forth  stronger 
and  purer  than  before.  It  is  the  Bible  which  in 
every  case  has  been  the  instrument  of  God's 
Spirit  in  these  reformations.  It  is  the  same 
Bible  which  has  been  the  agency  in  that  long 
series  of  historical  revivals  by  which  the  Church 
has  once  and  again  been  saved  in  days  of  stag- 
nation and  unbelief.  Without  the  Bible  not  one 
of  these  great  changes  would  have  been  brought 
about. 

And  how  marvelous  the  results !  To  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ  we  owe  it  that  we  ourselves  are  not 
today  worshiping  rocks  and  stones,  but  are  bow- 
ing in  acknowledgment  of  the  one  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  above 
all  and  in  all.  It  was  Christianity  that,  in  the 
early  centuries,  overthrew  the  reign  of  the  gods 
and  goddesses  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  swept 
them  so  entirely  from  faith  and  history  that  no 
one  now  so  much  as  dreams  of  the  possibility 
of  the  revival  of  their  worship.  It  was  Chris- 
tianity that,  still  retaining  something  of  its  youth- 
ful energy,  laid  hold  of  the  rough,  barbarian 
peoples  that  overran  Europe,  and,  with  the  Bible's 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  93 

aid,  trained  and  molded  them  to  some  kind  of 
civilization  and  moral  life.  It  was  Christianity 
that,  in  Scotland,  lighted  a  light  in  the  monas- 
teries of  lona  and  other  places,  that  by-and-by 
spread  its  beams  through  every  part  of  the 
country.  Just  as  today  it  is  Christianity  that  is 
teaching  the  idolaters  to  burn  their  idols,  to 
cease  their  horrid  practices,  to  worship  the  true 
God,  and  take  upon  them  the  obligations  of  decent 
and  civilized  existence. 

The  Bible  and  the  Future  Life. 

As  it  is  with  the  knowledge  of  God,  so  is  it 
with  hope  for  the  future.  The  ancient  world 
was  as  much  in  the  darkness  about  a  future  life 
as  it  was  about  the  being  and  character  of  God, 
and  what  notions  it  had  were  perplexed,  con- 
fused, and  erroneous  in  the  extreme.  But  Christ, 
as  He  came  from  God  and  went  to  God,  has  shed 
a  new  light  into  the  depths  of  the  Unseen,  and, 
by  His  own  Resurrection,  has  opened  the  gates 
of  a  new  and  assured  hope  to  mankind  (I  Peter 
1:3).  The  lesson  of  all  history  is  that,  apart  from 
the  Bible,  and  this  hope  which  it  contains,  the 
world  but  gropes  in  darkness,  and  wanders  into 
deeper  and  ever  deeper  uncertainty,  from  the 
scepticism  in  which  ancient  Rome  and  Greece 
ended,  to  the  unconcealed  agnosticism,  and  deeper 
than  agnosticism,  the  pessimism,  under  the  de- 
pressing influence  of  which  our  modern  age 
groans. 


94        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Take  a  single  illustration.  I  took  up  lately  a 
work  of  fiction  —  a  book  written,  its  lately  de- 
ceased author  (Grant  Allen)  declared,  *'  for  the 
first  time  in  my  life  wholly  and  solely  to  satisfy 
my  own  taste  and  my  own  conscience "  —  and 
this  is  the  kind  of  teaching  it  offers.  The  author 
is  speaking  in  his  own  name.  "  Blank  pessimism," 
he  says,  "  is  the  one  creed  possible  for  all  save 
fools.  To  hold  any  other  is  to  curl  yourself  up 
selfishly  in  your  own  easy  chair,  and  say  to  your 
soul,  '  O  soul,  eat  and  drink ;  O  soul,  make 
merry.'  .  .  .  Pessimism  is  sympathy;  optimism 
is  selfishness.  .  .  .  All  honest  art  is  therefore  of 
necessity  pessimistic."  The  close  of  the  book 
describes  the  suicide  of  the  heroine,  and  its  last 
words  are :  "  Her  stainless  soul  ceased  to  exist 
forever." 

In  such  an  eclipse  of  hope  —  and  there  is  more 
of  that  eclipse  at  this  hour  in  human  minds  and 
hearts  than  one  sometimes  realizes  —  what  can 
bring  light  to  the  world,  but  the  glorious  mes- 
sage of  life  and  immortality  through  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  ? 

Look  once  more  at  heathenism.  Here  is  an 
extract  from  a  letter  recently  received  from  a 
young  missionary  working  in  India.  "  I  have 
had  to  give  up  the  idea,"  he  says,  "  of  sending 
home  impressions  of  heathenism.  Much  of  it  is 
literally  indescribable,  and  a  good  deal  of  it  too 
awful  to  describe.  It  does  not  enter  into  one's 
mind  all  at  once  that  one's  environment  in  a  place 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  95 

like  this  is  almost  incredibly  vile.  Things  have 
not  so  appalling  an  appearance  on  the  surface, 
but  here  and  there  are  breaks,  and  one  gets  a 
glimpse  inside."  Then  follows  a  counter-picture 
of  the  changes  seen  in  the  ''  boys  "  at  his  insti- 
tution. "  Here  is  a  very  primitive  Christianity, 
if  you  like ;  but  for  pluck,  frank  good  nature, 
real  affection,  and  honest,  downright  fidelity  (ac- 
cording to  their  lights),  they  are  as  widely  dif- 
ferent from  heathen  boys  as  night  from  day." 

It  is  this  gospel  which  today  is  flooding  with 
hope  and  courage  myriads  of  hearts  that  would 
otherwise  be  in  deepest  despondency;  that  in 
India,  in  China,  in  Africa,  in  the  New  Hebrides, 
in  every  land  to  which  it  comes,  is  rising  like  a 
great  ''  rose  of  dawn,"  a  "  dayspring  from  on 
high,"  fraught  with  hope  and  healing  for  the  woes 
of  men.  But  in  this  great  work  of  the  recovery 
of  mankind  to  God,  of  the  regeneration  of  the 
world,  how  absolutely  indispensable  is  the  Bible! 
Without  it  what  could  the  missionary,  arm  and 
tongue  paralyzed,  accomplish?  With  it,  even  in 
the  absence  of  the  missionary,  what  wondrous 
changes,  moral  miracles  even,  are  sometimes  ef- 
fected! Like  seeds  wafted  by  the  wind  into  the 
crevices  of  hard  rock,  that  grow  and  flourish 
and  by-and-by  split  the  rock,  the  simple  truths  of 
the  Bible,  without  a  human  tongue  to  expound 
and  enforce  them,  have  often  taken  root,  and 
brought  forth  amazing  fruit,  to  God's  sole  glory. 
It  was  through  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament, 


96         THE   BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD   TODAY 

found  floating  in  the  waters  of  the  Bay  of  Yeddo, 
that  the  gospel  re-entered  Japan,  and  created  the 
first  band  of  disciples  —  the  nucleus  of  the  future 
Church  —  when  as  yet  no  Christian  teacher  was 
permitted  to  enter,  and  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity was  prohibited  on  pain  of  death. 

The  Results  to  Ourselves. 

Need  I,  finally,  in  this  plea  for  the  power  of 
the  Bible,  go  further  than  its  blessed  results  to 
ourselves?  What  do  zve  not  owe  to  the  Bible, 
and  to  the  gospel  which  it  brings  ?  I  have  spoken 
already  of  civil  blessings ;  I  look  now  only  to  the 
spiritual.  Our  innumerable  churches,  our  Sab- 
bath rest  and  privileges,  the  religion  whose  power 
inspires  so  much  earnest  life  and  so  much  noble 
work,  the  blessed  effects  of  that  religion  in  peace, 
in  strength,  in  moral  impulse  in  the  minds  that 
possess  it,  the  comfort  it  dispenses  in  trial,  and 
the  joy  and  triumph  it  gives  in  death  —  all  this 
is  the  fruit  of  the  message  of  the  Bible.  What- 
ever blessings  or  hope  we  can  trace  to  our  Chris- 
tian faith ;  whatever  light  it  imparts  to  our  minds, 
or  cheer  to  our  hearts ;  whatever  power  there  is 
in  it  to  sustain  holiness  or  conquer  sin  —  all  this 
we  owe  to  the  fact  that  Jesus  came,  and  lived, 
and  died,  and  rose  again,  and  has  given  us  of 
His  Spirit ;  and  that  we  have  the  Bible  in  our 
hands  to  tell  us  that  He  did  it,  and  what  He 
expects  us  to  be  and  do  as  His  disciples. 

Surveying  the  road  we  have  traveled,   am   I 


THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  97 

not  entitled  to  claim  that  the  rock  of  God's  truth 
stands  fast,  and  that  Jesus,  His  gospel,  and  the 
Book  that  sets  both  forth,  are  still,  let  men  gain- 
say as  they  will,  the  spiritual  powers  that  hold 
in  them  the  hope  of  the  world's  future.  Christ's 
reign  is  not  ending.  It  will  endure.  In  many 
ways,  voluntary  or  involuntary,  His  supremacy 
is  owned  by  the  very  persons  who  most  loudly 
dispute  His  claims.  Even  unbelief  confirms  the 
Scripture  statement  that  God  has  given  Jesus 
*' the  name  which  is  above  every  name"  (Phil. 
2:9).  Christ's  own  Church,  with  more  con- 
sistency, echoes  the  confession.  But  so  long  as 
Christ,  in  His  self-attesting  power,  commands  the 
allegiance  of  believing  hearts,  the  Bible,  which 
contains  the  priceless  treasure  of  God's  Word 
regarding  Him,  will  remain  in  undimmed  honor. 
It  will  be  read,  prized  and  studied  by  devout 
minds,  while  the  world  lasts. 


IV 
tCfje  ^upremacp  of  tfte  ?Bi6le 

FREDERICK   W.    FARRAR 

Men  have  misused  Scripture  just  as  they  mis- 
use Hght  or  food.  And  yet  the  Holy  Scriptures 
continue  to  be  —  and  even  increasingly  to  be  — 
the  Supreme  Bible  of  Humanity.  There  could 
be  no  more  decisive  proof  of  the  unique  tran- 
scendence of  Holy  Writ,  and  its  essential  mes- 
sage to  mankind,  than  the  fact  that  it  has  not 
only  triumphed  with  ease  over  the  assaults  of 
its  enemies,  but  has  also  continued  to  command 
the  reverence,  to  guide  the  thoughts,  to  educate 
the  souls,  to  kindle  the  moral  aspirations  of  men 
through  all  the  world.  Were  we  to  collect  the 
impassioned  eulogies  which  have  been  pronounced 
upon  it  by  the  saints  and  theologians  of  every 
age  we  should  require  a  volume,  and  he  must 
be  indeed  a  cynic  who  could  declare  that  testi- 
monies so  numerous  and  so  fervent  are  due 
only  to  insincerity  or  custom.  Yet,  if  such  ex- 
pressions of  gratitude  and  even  of  ecstasy  be  sus- 
pected, how  can  we  possibly  explain  the  fact 
that  the  most  advanced  critics  —  that  literary  men 
outside   the    sphere    of    church    influence  —  that 


lOO      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

men  who  would  be  denounced  as  heretics  —  nay, 
even  that  avowed  sceptics,  who  have  approached 
the  Bible  without  a  single  trammel  of  doctrine 
or  tradition  —  have  yet  spoken  of  it  in  terms 
of  astonishment  and  admiration  no  less  glowing 
than  those  which  have  been  used  by  preachers 
and   divines? 

I  will  collect  a  few  of  these  estimates  of  Scrip- 
ture formed  by  men  of  independent  minds  and 
of  the  highest  ability,  and  by  men  who  have  ap- 
proached the  Bible  solely  from  its  literary  and 
humanitarian  side.  Their  evidence  will  show 
that  the  ignorant  contempt  with  which  the  Bible 
is  often  disparaged  only  proves  the  incapacity 
of  its  assailants  to  grasp  its  real  significance. 
It  is  a  literature  which  no  age  or  nation  can  equal 
or  supersede,  "  though  every  library  in  the  world 
had  remained  unravaged,  and  every  teacher's 
truest  words  had  been  written  down."  "  What 
problems  do  these  books  leave  unexamined  ?  vv^hat 
depths  unfathomed?  what  height  unsealed?  what 
consolation  unadministered  ?  what  conscience  un- 
reproved  ?  what  heart  untouched  ?  "  How  absurd 
it  must  be  to  scoff  at  a  book  which,  through  all 
the  centuries,  thousands  of  great  men  have  rev- 
erenced in  proportion  to  their  greatness ;  a  book 
for  which,  in  age  after  age,  warriors  have  fought, 
philosophers  labored,  and  martyrs  bled!  The 
Lord  Christ  Himself  did  not  disdain  to  quote  from 
the  Old  Testament.  Its  Uterary  splendor  was 
acknowledged  even  by  heathen  critics  like  Longi- 


THE   SUPREMACY   OF  THE   BIBLE  loi 

nus,  who  referred  to  the  sublimity  of  Genesis  and 
the  impassioned  force  of  St.  Paul.  It  exercised 
the  toil  of  Origen  and  Jerome;  it  fired  the  elo- 
quence of  Gregory  and  Chrysostom ;  it  molded 
the  thoughts  of  Athanasius  and  Augustine ;  the 
"  Summa  Theologise "  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas 
was  but  a  meditation  upon  its  theology,  and  the 
"  Imitatio  Christi  "  of  St.  Thomas  a  Kempis  an 
attempt  to  express  its  spirituality.  All  that  is 
best  and  greatest  in  the  literature  of  two  thou- 
sand years  has  been  rooted  in  it  and  has  sprung 
from  it.  It  has  inspired  the  career  of  all  the 
best  of  men  who  "  raised  strong  arms  to  bring 
heaven  a  little  nearer  to  our  earth."  vSt.  Vincent 
de  Paul  learned  from  its  pages  his  tenderness  for 
the  poor;  and  John  Howard  his  love  for  the 
suffering;  and  William  Wilberforce  his  com- 
passion for  the  slaves ;  and  Lord  Shaftesbury 
the  dedication  of  his  life  to  the  amelioration  of 
the  lot  of  his  fellow-men.  Has  there  been  one 
of  our  foremost  statesmen  or  our  best  philanthro- 
pists who  has  not  confessed  the  force  of  its  in- 
spiration? It  dilated  and  inspired  the  immortal 
song  of  Dante  and  of  Milton.  All  the  brightest 
and  best  English  verse,  from  the  poems  of 
Chaucer  to  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  in  their 
noblest  parts,  are  echoes  of  its  lessons ;  and  from 
Cowper  to  Wordsworth,  from  Coleridge  to  Tenny- 
son, the  greatest  of  our  poets  have  drawn  from 
its  pages  their  loftiest  wisdom.  It  inspired  the 
pictures  of  Fra  Angelico  and  Raphael,  the  music 


10  2      THE   BIBLE   EN'  THE  WORLD   TODAY 

of  Handel  and  Mendelssohn.  It  kindled  the  in- 
trepid genius  of  Luther,  the  bright  imagination  of 
Bunyan,  the  burning  zeal  of  W'hitefield.  The 
hundred  best  books,  the  hundred  best  pictures, 
the  hundred  greatest  strains  of  music  are  all  in 
it  and  all  derived  from  it.  Augustine  said  long 
ago  that  in  the  great  poets  and  philosophers  of 
pagan  antiquity  he  found  many  things  that  are 
noble  and  beautiful,  but  not  among  them  all  could 
he  find  "  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  are  weary 
and  hea\y  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

The  First  Group  of  Witnesses. 

Vast  indeed  is  the  cloud  of  witnesses  to  the 
glor\-  and  supremacy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
"  Out  of  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses 
shall  even.'  word  be  established."  I  will  begin 
with  a  pleiad  of  witnesses,  chosen  first  by  way 
of  specimen  from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
yet  unanimous  in  their  testimony  to  the  eternal 
preciousness  of  Holy  Writ.  I  will  adduce  the 
opinions  of  a  Romish  cardinal,  a  Jewish  littera- 
teur, an  American  Unitarian,  a  German  scholar, 
an  Englishman  of  science,  and  an  EngHshman 
of  letters.  All  of  them  differed,  some  of 
them  disbelieved,  yet  they  are  all  at  one  as  to  the 
unapproachable  supremacy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

I.  John  Henry  Newman  was  a  Romish  cardi- 
nal of  sincere  goodness  and  refined  genius.  He 
said  of  the  Bible,  "  Its  light  is  like  the  body 
of  heaven  in  its  clearness :    its  zastness  like  the 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE  103 

bosom  of  the  sea;  its  variety  like  scenes  of 
nature." 

2.  Heinrich  Heine  was  a  Jew,  half  German, 
half  French;  a  man  of  flashing  wit,  a  brilliant 
stylist,  a  confirmed  doubter.  After  a  Sunday  of 
leaden  ennui  in  Heligoland,  he  writes  that  he  took 
up  the  Bible  in  desperation,  and  spent  most  of  the 
day  in  reading  it.  Though  he  confesses  himself 
a  secret  Hellene,  he  admits  that  he  was  not  only 
well  entertained  but  deeply  edified.  "  What  a 
book !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Vast  and  wide  as  the 
world!  rooted  in  the  abysses  of  creation,  and 
towering  up  beyond  the  blue  secrets  of  heaven! 
Sunrise  and  sunset,  birth  and  death,  promise  and 
fulfillment,  the  whole  drama  of  Humanity  are  all 
in  this  Book!" 

"  It  is  the  Book  of  books.  The  Jews  may 
easily  console  themselves  for  having  lost  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  Temple,  and  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  and  the  golden  vessels,  and  the  pre- 
cious things  of  Solomon.  Such  a  loss  is  insig- 
nificant compared  with  the  Bible,  the  imperishable 
treasure  which  they  have  rescued.  If  I  do  not 
err,  it  was  Mahomet  who  named  the  Jews  *  the 
people  of  the  Book  '  —  a  name  which  has  remained 
theirs  to  the  present  day,  and  is  deeply  charac- 
teristic. A  book  is  their  fatherland.  They  live 
within  the  boundaries  of  this  Book.  Here  do 
they  exercise  their  inalienable  rights  of  citizen- 
ship. Here  they  can  be  neither  persecuted  nor 
despised.     Absorbed  in  the  study  of  this  Book, 


I04      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

they  observed  little  of  the  changes  which  went 
on  about  them  in  the  world.  Nations  arose  and 
perished ;  states  flourished  and  disappeared ;  revo- 
lutions stormed  out  of  the  ground,  but  they  lay 
bent  over  their  Book,  and  observed  nothing  of  the 
wild  tumult  of  the  times  that  passed  over  thier 
heads." 

Nor  was  this  a  mere  passing  spasm  of  admira- 
tion. When  he  was  near  his  death,  after  years  of 
agony  on  his  mattress-cofiin,  when  he  had  become 
a  changed  man,  Heine  wrote,  ''  I  attribute  my  en- 
lightenment entirely  and  simply  to  the  reading  of 
a  book.  Of  a  book?  Yes!  and  it  is  an  old 
homely  book,  modest  as  nature  —  a  book  which 
has  a  look  modest  as  the  sun  which  warms  us, 
as  the  bread  which  nourishes  us  —  a  book  as 
full  of  love  and  blessing  as  the  old  mother  who 
reads  in  it  with  her  dear  trembling  lips,  and  this 
book  is  the  Book,  the  Bible.  With  right  is  it 
named  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  who  has  lost  his 
God  can  find  Him  again  in  this  Book,  and  he  who 
has  never  known  Him  is  here  struck  by  the  breath 
of  the  Divine  Word." 

3.  Theodore  Parker  was  a  Unitarian  minister 
at  Boston,  a  man  of  deep  earnestness,  of  great 
eloquence,  of  splendid  courage. 

"  This  collection  of  books  has  taken  such  a 
hold  on  the  world  as  no  other.  The  literature 
of  Greece,  which  goes  up  like  incense  from  that 
land  of  temples  and  heroic  deeds,  has  not  half 
the  influence  of  this  Book,  from  a  nation  alike 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         105 

despised  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  It  is 
read  of  a  Sunday  in  all  the  ten  thousand  pulpits 
of  our  land;  in  all  the  temples  of  Christendom 
is  its  voice  lifted  up  week  by  week.  The  sun 
never  sets  on  its  gleaming  page.  It  goes  equally 
to  the  cottage  of  the  plain  man  and  the  palace 
of  the  king.  It  is  woven  into  the  literature  of 
the  scholar,  and  colors  the  talk  of  the  street. 
The  bark  of  the  merchant  cannot  sail  the  sea 
without  it;  no  ship  of  war  goes  to  the  conflict 
but  the  Bible  is  there.  It  enters  men's  closets, 
mingles  in  all  the  grief  and  cheerfulness  of  life. 
The  affianced  maiden  prays  God  in  Scripture  for 
strength  in  her  new  duties.  Men  are  married  by 
Scripture;  the  Bfble  attends  them  in  their  sick- 
ness, when  the  fever  of  the  world  is  on  them; 
the  aching  head  finds  a  softer  pillow  when  the 
Bible  lies  underneath  ;  the  mariner,  escaping  from 
shipwreck,  clutches  this  first  of  his  treasures,  and 
keeps  it  sacred  to  God." 

4.  Heinrich  von  Ewald  was  a  German  scholar 
of  immense  learning,  who  by  indefatigable,  life- 
long study  —  amid  the  universal  chorus  of  anath- 
emas from  that  "  blind  and  naked  Ignorance " 
which 

Delivers  brawling  judgments  unashamed 

On  all  things  all  day  long  — 

flung  more  light  on  the  true  meaning  and  history 
of  Scripture  than  all  his  assailants  put  together. 
One  day,  when  the  late  Dean  Stanley  was  visiting 
him,  a  New  Testament  which  was  lying  on  a 


Io6      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

little  table  happened  to  fall  to  the  ground.  He 
stooped  to  pick  it  up,  and  he  laid  it  again  on 
the  table.  "  It  is  impossible,"  says  Dean  Stanley, 
"  to  forget  the  noble  enthusiasm  with  which  this 
'  dangerous  heretic,'  as  he  was  regarded,  grasped 
the  small  volume,  and  exclaimed  with  indescrib- 
able emotion,  *  In  this  little  book  is  contained  all 
the  best  wisdom  of  the  world.' " 

5.  Professor  Huxley  was  a  man  of  science, 
and  one  of  the  most  eminent.  It  was  he  who  in- 
vented the  word  "  Agnosticism,"  and  he  accepted 
the  name  "  Agnostic."  Yet  he  pleaded  in  the 
school  board  for  the  Bible,  as  the  best  source  of 
the  highest  education  for  children,  and  in  the 
Contemporary  Review  for  December,  1870,  he 
wrote :  *'  I  have  always  been  strongly  in  favor  of 
secular  education,  in  the  sense  of  education  with- 
out theology,  but  I  must  confess  I  have  been  no 
less  seriously  perplexed  to  know  by  what  practical 
measures  the  religious  feeling,  which  is  the  essen- 
tial basis  of  conduct,  was  to  be  kept  up  in  the 
present  utterly  chaotic  state  of  opinion  on  these 
matters  without  the  use  of  the  Bible.  The  pagan 
moralists  lack  life  and  color,  and  even  the  noble 
Stoic,  Marcus  Antoninus,  is  too  high  and  re- 
fined for  an  ordinary  child.  Take  the  Bible  as 
a  whole,  make  the  severest  deductions  which  fair 
criticism  can  dictate  for  shortcomings  and  posi- 
tive errors,  eliminate,  as  a  sensible  lay  teacher 
would  do  if  left  to  himself,  all  that  it  is  not 
desirable  for  children  to  occupy  themselves  with, 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         107 

and  there  still  remains  in  this  old  literature  a 
vast  residuum  of  moral  beauty  and  grandeur. 
And  then  consider  the  great  historical  fact  that 
for  three  centuries  this  Book  has  been  woven  into 
the  life  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  English 
history;  that  it  has  become  the  national  epic  of 
Britain,  and  is  familiar  to  noble  and  simple  from 
John  o'Groat's  House  to  Land's  End,  as  Dante 
and  Tasso  were  once  to  the  Italians;  that  it  is 
written  in  the  noblest  and  purest  English,  and 
abounds  in  exquisite  beauties  of  a  merely  literary 
form ;  and,  finally,  that  it  forbids  the  veriest  hind 
who  never  left  his  village  to  be  ignorant  of  the 
existence  of  other  countries  and  other  civiliza- 
tions, and  of  a  great  past,  stretching  back  to  the 
furthest  limits  of  the  oldest  nations  in  the  world. 
By  the  study  of  what  other  book  could  children 
be  so  much  humanized,  and  made  to  feel  that 
each  figure  in  that  vast  historical  procession  fills, 
like  themselves,  but  a  momentary  space  in  the 
interval  between  two  eternities,  and  earns  the 
blessings  or  the  curses  of  all  times,  according 
to  its  efforts  to  do  good  and  hate  evil,  even  as 
they  also  are  earning  their  payment  for  their 
work?" 

6.  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  was  a  man  with  an 
exquisite  gift  of  style  and  of  critical  insight. 
He  retained  but  little  faith  in  the  miraculous; 
his  creed  was  anything  but  orthodox.  Yet  the 
Bible  was  his  chief  and  constant  study,  and  he 
even   contributed  a  most   important   element  to 


I08      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  true  principles  of  its  elucidation  when  he 
insisted  that  being  a  literature  it  must  be  in- 
terpreted on  the  fixed  principles  of  literary  criti- 
cism. His  writings  abound  in  passages  which 
witness  to  his  intense  reverence  and  admiration 
for  the  Sacred  Books. 

"  As  well  imagine  a  man,"  he  says,  *'  with  a 
sense  for  sculpture  not  cultivating  it  by  the  help 
of  the  remains  of  Greek  art,  and  a  man  with  a 
sense  for  poetry  not  cultivating  it  by  the  help 
of  Homer  and  Shakespeare,  as  a  man  with  a 
sense  for  conduct  not  cultivating  it  by  the  help 
of  the  Bible." 

The  Testimony  of  Great  Authors. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  group  together  a  few 
more  of  the  remarkable  testimonies  to  the  unique 
supremacy  of  Scripture  over  all  other  literature 
—  testimonies  gathered  from  men  of  every  va- 
riety of  genius  and  eminence,  and  from  men  who, 
though  they  differed  from  each  other  as  widely 
as  possible  in  their  religious  standpoint,  were 
at  one  in  their  exaltation  of  Holy  Writ. 

Let  us  begin  with  great  authors. 

1.  Richard  Hooker: 

"  There  is  scarcely  any  noble  part  of  knowledge 
worthy  of  the  mind  of  man,  but  from  Scripture 
it  may  have  some  direction  and  light." 

2.  Milton : 

"  There  are  no  songs  to  be  compared  with  the 
songs  of  Zion,  no  orations  equal  to  those  of  the 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         109 

Prophets,  and  no  politics  equal  to  those  the  Scrip- 
tures can  teach  us." 

And  of  the  Scriptures  in  general  he  says : 
"  I  shall  wish  I  may  deserve  to  be  reckoned 
among  those  who  admire  and  dwell  upon  them." 

3.  Spenser,  we  are  told,  studied  the  prophetic 
writings  before  he  wrote  the  "  Faerie  Queene." 

4.  Bacon  has  more  than  seventy  allusions  to 
the  Bible  in  twenty-four  of  his  essays. 

5.  George  Herbert  wrote : 

'T  is  heaven  in  perspective,  and  the  bliss 

Of  glory  here. 

If  anywhere. 
By  saints  on  earth  anticipated  is, 

Whilst  faith  to  every  word 

Its  being  doth  afford.^ 

6.  Sir  Isaac  Newton : 

"  We  account  the  Scriptures  of  God  to  be  the 
most  sublime  philosophy." 

7.  Addison,  Johnson,  Pope,  Young  abound  in 
Scriptural  allusions,  and  that  in  their  most  beau- 
tiful and  impressive  passages. 

8.  William  Cowper,  comparing  the  poor  Buck- 
inghamshire lace-worker  with  Voltaire,  says : 

Yon  cottager  who  weaves  at  her  own  door, 
Pillow  and  bobbins  all  her  little  store, 
Just  earns  a  scanty  pittance,  and  at  night 
Lies  down  secure,  her  heart  and  pocket  light; 
Just  knows,  and  knows  no  more,  her  Bible  true, 
A  truth  the  brilliant  Frenchman  never  knew; 
And  in  that  treasure  reads  with  sparkling  eyes 
Her  title  to  a  mansion  in  the  skies. 

^  The  Synagogue,  p.  14. 


no      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

O  happy  peasant!    O  unhappy  bard  I 
His  the  mere  tinsel,  hers  the  rich  reward! 
He,  praised  perhaps  for  ages  yet  to  come; 
She,  never  heard  of  half  a  mile  from  home: 
He  lost  in  errors  his  vain  heart  prefers, 
She  safe  in  the  simplicity  of  hers.^ 

9.  The  poet  Collins  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  withdrew  from  his  general  studies,  and  trav- 
eled with  no  other  book  than  an  English  New 
Testament,  such  as  children  carry  to  school.  Dr. 
Johnson  was  anxious  to  know  what  compan- 
ion a  man  of  letters  had  chosen;  the  poet 
said,  "  I  have  only  one  book,  but  that  book  is 
the  best." 

ID.    John  Wesley: 

"  I  am  a  creature  of  a  day,  passing  through 
life  as  an  arrow  through  the  air.  I  am  a  spirit, 
coming  from  God,  and  returning  to  God;  just 
hovering  over  the  great  gulf;  a  few  moments 
hence  I  am  no  more  seen;  I  drop  into  an  un- 
changeable eternity!  I  want  to  know  one  thing 
—  the  way  to  heaven :  how  to  land  safe  on  that 
happy  shore.  God  himself  has  condescended  to 
teach  the  way.  He  hath  written  it  down  in  a 
book.  O  give  me  that  Book !  At  any  price,  give 
me  the  Book  of  God !  I  have  it :  here  is  knowledge 
enough  for  me.  Let  me  be  a  man  of  one  book. 
Here,  then,  I  am,  far  from  the  busy  ways  of 
men.  I  sit  down  alone;  only  God  is  here.  In 
His  presence  I  open,  I  read  His  Book,  for  this 
end  —  to  find  the  way  to  heaven." 
1  Truth. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         iii 

11.  Coleridge: 

"  For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  Bible 
collectively  taken  has  gone  hand  in  hand  with 
civilization,  science,  law  —  in  short,  with  the 
moral  and  intellectual  cultivation  of  the  species, 
always  supporting  and  often  leading  the  way."  ^ 

12.  Sir  Walter  Scott: 

Within  this  awful  volume  lies 
The  mystery  of  mysteries: 
Happiest  he  of  human  race 
To  whom  God  has  given  grace 
To  read,  to  fear,  to  hope,  to  pray, 
To  lift  the  latch,  and  learn  the  way; 
And  better  had  he  ne'er  been  born  | 

Who  reads  to  doubt,  or  reads  to  scorn.*  ' 

"  Bring  me  the  book,"  he  said,  when  he  lay 
dying.  "What  book?"  asked  Lockhart,  his  son- 
in-law.  "  The  Book,"  said  Sir  Walter ;  "  the 
Bible;  there  is  but  one." 

13.  Lord  Macaulay,  who  knew  the  Bible  well 
from  a  child  and  often  refers  to  it,  said : 

*'  The  English  Bible  —  a  book  which,  if  every- 
thing else  in  our  language  should  perish,  would 
alone  suffice  to  show  the  whole  extent  of  its 
beauty  and  power."  ^ 

14.  Charles  Dickens  wrote  to  his  son : 

"  It  is  my  comfort  and  my  sincere  conviction 
that  you  are  going  to  try  the  life  for  which  you 
are  best  fitted.    I  think  its  freedom  and  wildness 

^  Confessions  of  an  Enquiring  Spirit,  p.  69. 
*  The  Monastery.  \ 
'  Essay  on  Dryden. 


112      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

more  suited  to  you  than  experiment  in  a  study 
or  office  would  have  been.  Try  to  do  to  others 
as  you  would  have  them  do  to  you,  and  do  not 
be  discouraged  if  they  fail  sometimes.  It  is  much 
better  for  you  that  they  should  fail  in  obeying  the 
greatest  rule  laid  down  by  our  Saviour  than  that 
you  should.  I  put  a  New  Testament  among  your 
books  for  the  very  same  reasons  and  with  the 
very  same  hopes  that  made  me  write  an  easy 
account  of  it  for  you  when  you  were  a  little 
child  —  because  it  is  the  best  book  that  ever  was 
or  will  be  known  in  the  world,  and  because  it 
teaches  you  the  best  lessons  by  which  any  human 
creature  who  tries  to  be  truthful  and  faithful  to 
duty  can  possibly  be  guided."  ^ 

15.  Thomas  Carlyle. 

Carlyle  was  a  man  who  prided  himself  on  his 
absolute  veracity.  His  attitude  toward  the 
Church,  his  attitude  to  every  form  of  Christianity, 
was  one  of  intellectual  aloofness  and  complete 
independence.     He  says  of  the  Bible  that  it  is 

"  The  one  Book  wherein,  for  thousands  of 
years,  the  spirit  of  man  has  found  light  and 
nourishment,  and  a  response  to  whatever  was 
deepest  in  his  heart." 

John  Ruskin's  Notable  Words. 

16.  John  Ruskin : 

"All  that  I  have  taught  of  Art,"  he  says, 
"  everything  that  I  have  written,  whatever  great- 

'  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens,  III.  445. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         113 

ness  there  has  been  in  any  thought  of  mine, 
whatever  I  have  done  in  my  Hfe,  has  simply 
been  due  to  the  fact  that,  when  I  was  a  child, 
my  mother  daily  read  with  me  a  part  of  the 
Bible,  and  daily  made  me  learn  a  part  of  it  by 
heart." 

"  How  much  I  owe,"  he  says,  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  "  Praeterita,"  "  to  my  mother  for 
having  so  exercised  me  in  the  Scriptures  as  to 
make  me  grasp  them  in  what  my  correspondent 
would  call  their  '  concrete  whole ' ;  and  above  all 
taught  me  to  reverence  them  as  transcending  all 
thought  and  ordaining  all  conduct.  This  she 
effected,  not  by  her  own  sayings  or  personal 
authority,  but  simply  by  compelling  me  to  read 
the  Book  thoroughly  for  myself.  As  soon  as  I 
was  able  to  read  with  fluency,  she  began  a  course 
of  Bible  work  with  me,  which  never  ceased  till 
I  went  to  Oxford.  She  read  alternate  verses  to 
me,  watching  at  first  every  intonation  of  my  voice, 
and  correcting  the  false  ones,  till  she  made  me 
understand  the  verse,  if  within  my  reach,  rightly 
and  energetically.  It  might  be  beyond  me  alto- 
gether ;  that  she  did  not  care  about ;  but  she 
made  sure  that  as  soon  as  I  got  hold  of  it  at  all, 
I  should  get  hold  of  it  by  the  right  end.  In 
this  way  she  began  with  the  first  verse  of  Genesis, 
and  went  straight  through  to  the  last  verse  of 
the  Apocalypse;  hard  names,  numbers,  Levitical 
law  and  all;  and  began  again  at  Genesis  next 
day.    If  a  name  was  hard,  the  better  the  exercise 


114      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

in  pronunciation;  if  a  chapter  was  tiresome,  the 
better  the  lesson  in  patience;  if  loathsome,  the 
better  the  lesson  in  faith  that  there  was  some  use 
in  its  being  so  outspoken.  After  our  chapters 
(from  two  to  three  a  day,  according  to  their 
length,  the  first  thing  after  breakfast,  and  no 
interruption  from  servants  allowed,  none  from 
visitors,  who  either  joined  in  the  reading  or  had 
to  stay  upstairs,  and  none  from  any  visitings  or 
excursions,  except  real  traveling),  I  had  to  learn 
a  few  verses  by  heart,  or  repeat,  to  make  sure  I 
had  not  lost,  something  of  what  was  already 
known;  and,  with  the  chapters  above  enumer- 
ated, I  had  to  learn  the  whole  body  of  the  fine 
old  Scottish  paraphrases,  which  are  good,  melo- 
dious, and  forceful  verse ;  and  to  which,  together 
with  the  Bible  itself,  I  owe  the  first  cultivation 
of  my  ear  in  sound.  It  is  strange  that  of  all  the 
pieces  of  the  Bible  that  my  mother  thus  taught 
me,  that  which  cost  me  m.ost  to  learn,  and  which 
was,  to  my  child's  mind,  chiefly  repulsive  —  Psalm 
119  —  has  now  become  of  all  the  most  precious 
to  me  in  its  overflowing  and  glorious  passion  of 
love  for  the  law  of  God." 

17.  The  two  greatest  poets  of  our  generation, 
Browning  and  Tennyson,  abound  in  loving  and 
reverent  allusions  to  the  Bible,  which  will  recur 
to  the  memory  of  every  student  of  their  works. 

18.  Mr.  J.  A.  Froude,  in  his  sketch  of  John 
Bunyan,  writes: 

"  The  Bible  thoroughly  known  is  a  literature 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE  115 

of  itself  —  the  rarest  and  the  richest  in  all  de- 
partments of  thought  or  imagination  which 
exists." 

19.  Charles  Reade  writes  that  he  was  aston- 
ished at  the  amazing  vividness  of  impression  pro- 
duced by  the  sacred  writers  with  a  few  slight 
touches.  He  considered  that  in  a  few  lines  they 
left  a  deeper  mark  than  many  a  writer  of  genius 
in  a  long  work  of  fiction.  This  consideration 
sufficed,  even  alone,  to  impress  on  him  a  sense 
of  their  transcendent  value. 

20.  Speaking  of  the  matchless  verve  and  in- 
sight which  we  find  in  the  delineation  of  char- 
acters in  the  Bible,  another  of  our  most  eminent 
modern  novelists,  Mr.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson, 
says : 

"  Written  in  the  East,  these  characters  live 
for  ever  in  the  West;  written  in  one  province, 
they  pervade  the  world;  penned  in  rude  times, 
they  are  prized  more  and  more  as  civilization 
advances;  product  of  antiquity,  they  come  home 
to  the  business  and  bosoms  of  men,  women,  and 
children  in  modern  days.  Then  is  it  any  ex- 
aggeration to  say  that  the  *  characters  of  Scrip- 
ture are  a  marvel  of  the  mind  '  ?  " 

21.  Another  eminent  novelist,  Mr.  Hall  Caine, 
writes  in  McChire's  Magazine: 

"  I  think  that  I  know  my  Bible  as  few  literary 
men  know  it.  There  is  no  book  in  the  world 
like  it,  and  the  finest  novels  ever  written  fall  far 
short  in  interest  of  any  one  of  the  stories  it  tells. 


Il6      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Whatever  strong  situations  I  have  in  my  books 
are  not  of  my  creation,  but  are  taken  from  the 
Bible.  '  The  Deemster  '  is  the  story  of  the  Prodi- 
gal Son.  *  The  Bondman  '  is  the  story  of  Esau 
and  Jacob.  '  The  Scapegoat '  is  the  story  of  Eli 
and  his  sons,  but  with  Samuel  as  a  little  girl; 
and  *  The  Manxman '  is  the  story  of  David  and 
Uriah." 

22.  Mr.  J.  H.  Green  wrote  his  admirable  his- 
tory of  England  without  the  smallest  touch  of 
clerical  bias,  and,  speaking  simply  as  an  observer 
and  an  impartial  historian,  he  records  the  memo- 
rably noble  effects  produced  upon  England  by  the 
possession  of  the  Scriptures  in  a  language  which 
the  people  could  understand. 

'*  England  became  the  people  of  a  Book,  and 
that  Book  was  the  Bible.'  It  was,  as  yet,  the  one 
English  book  which  was  familiar  to  every  Eng- 
lishman. It  was  read  in  churches,  and  it  was 
read  at  home,  and  everywhere  its  words,  as  they 
fell  on  ears  which  custom  had  not  deadened  to 
their  force  and  beauty,  kindled  a  startling  en- 
thusiasm. .  .  .  Elizabeth  might  silence  or  tune 
the  pulpits,  but  it  was  impossible  for  her  to 
silence  or  tune  the  great  preachers  of  justice, 
and  mercy,  and  truth,  who  spoke  from  the  Book 
which  the  Lord  again  opened  to  the  people.  .  .  . 
The  effect  of  the  Bible  in  this  way  was  simply 
amazing.  The  whole  temper  of  the  nation  was 
changed.  A  new  conception  of  life  and  of  man 
superseded  the  old.     A  new  moral  and  religious 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         117 

impulse  spread  through  every  class.  .  .  .  The- 
ology rules  there,  said  Grotius  of  England,  only 
ten  years  after  Elizabeth's  death.  The  whole 
nation,  in  fact,  becomes  a  Qiurch." 

The  Testimony  of  Rulers  and  Statesmen. 

Let  us  now  adduce  the  opinions  of  a  few  rulers 
and  statesmen. 

1.  King  Edward  the  Sixth.  At  the  coronation 
of  the  young  King  Edward  VL,  three  swords 
were  brought  to  be  carried  before  him,  as  signs 
of  his  being  head  of  three  kingdoms.  ''  There 
is  one  sword  yet  lacking,"  said  the  king,  "  the 
Bible.  That  book  is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
and  to  be  preferred  before  any  other.  Without 
that  sword  we  can  do  nothing,  we  have  no 
power."  And,  so  it  is  said,  at  his  command 
the  Bible  was  also  carried  before  him  in  the 
procession. 

2.  Very  remarkable  was  the  emphatic  testi- 
mony of  Napoleon  I.  to  the  Bible  as  recorded  in 
Bertrand's  Memoirs.  "  Behold  it  upon  this 
table  "  (here  he  solemnly  placed  his  hand  upon 
it).  "I  never  omit  to  read  it,  and  every  day  with 
the  same  pleasure.  Nowhere  is  to  be  found  such 
a  series  of  beautiful  ideas,  admirable  moral 
maxims,  which  produce  in  one's  soul  the  same 
emotion  which  one  experiences  in  contemplating 
the  infinite  expanse  of  the  skies  resplendent  upon 
a  summer's  night  with  all  the  brilliance  of  the 
stars.    Not  only  is  one's  mind  absorbed,  it  is  con- 


Il8      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

trolled,  and  the  soul  can  never  go  astray  with 
this  book  for  its  guide."  ^ 

3.  Lord  Bacon  —  "  The  Student's  Prayer  " : 
"  To  God  the  Father,  God  the  Word,  God  the 

Spirit  we  pour  forth  most  humble  and  hearty  sup- 
plications that  He,  remembering  the  calamities 
of  mankind,  and  the  pilgrimage  of  this  our  life, 
in  which  we  wear  out  days  few  and  evil,  would 
please  to  open  to  us  new  refreshments  out  of 
the  fountain  of  His  goodness  for  the  alleviating 
of  our  miseries.  This  also  we  humbly  and  ear- 
nestly beg,  that  human  things  may  not  prejudice 
such  as  are  Divine;  neither  that  from  the  un- 
locking of  the  gates  of  sense  and  the  kindling  of 
a  greater  natural  light  anything  of  incredulity  or 
intellectual  night  may  arise  in  our  minds  toward 
Divine  mysteries;  but  rather  that  by  our  minds 
thoroughly  cleansed  and  purged  from  fancy  and 
vanities,  and  subject  and  perfectly  given  up  to 
the  Divine  oracles,  there  may  be  given  unto  faith 
such  things  as  are  faith's." 

4.  John  Selden :  "  I  have  surveyed  most  of  the 
learning  found  among  the  sons  of  men ;  but  I  can 
stay  my  soul  on  none  of  them  but  the  Bible." 

5.  Sir  Matthew  Hale  (Lord  Chief  Justice)  : 
"  Every  morning  read  seriously  and  reverently  a 
portion  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  acquaint  your- 
self with  the  doctrine  thereof.  It  is  a  book  full 
of  light  and  wisdom,  and  will  make  you  wise  to 
eternal  life." 

'  See  Table  Talk  of  Napoleon  I.,  p.  120. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         119 

6.  Judge  Blackstone,  in  his  famous  "  Com- 
mentaries on  the  Laws  of  England,"  says  that 
the  Bible  has  always  been  regarded  as  part  of  the 
Common  Law  of  England." 

7.  Edmund  Burke :  "  The  Bible  is  not  a  book, 
but  a  literature,  and  indeed  an  infinite  collection 
of  the  most  varied  and  the  most  venerable 
literature." 

8.  William  Wilberforce :  "  Through  all  my 
perplexities  and  distresses,  I  seldom  read  any 
other  book,  and  I  as  rarely  have  felt  the  want 
of  any  other.     It  has  been  my  hourly  study." 

9.  Mr.  Gladstone :  "  It  is  supremacy,  not 
precedence,  that  we  ask  for  the  Bible ;  it  is  con- 
trast as  well  as  resemblance,  that  we  must  feel 
compelled  to  insist  on.  The  Bible  is  stamped 
with  speciality  of  origin,  and  an  immeasurable 
distance  separates  it  from  all  competitors. 

"  Who  doubts  that,  times  without  number,  par- 
ticular portions  of  Scripture  find  their  way  to 
the  human  soul  as  if  they  were  embassies  from 
on  high,  each  with  its  own  commission  of  com- 
fort, of  guidance,  or  of  warning?  What  crisis, 
what  trouble,  what  perplexity  of  life  has  failed 
or  can  fail  to  draw  from  this  inexhaustible 
treasure-house  its  proper  supply?  What  profes- 
sion, what  position,  is  not  daily  and  hourly  en- 
riched by  these  words  which  repetition  never 
weakens,  which  carry  with  them  now,  as  in  the 
days  of  their  first  utterance,  the  freshness  of 
youth  and  immortality?     When  the  solitary  stu- 


120      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

dent  opens  all  his  heart  to  drink  them  in,  they 
will  reward  his  toil.  And  in  forms  yet  more 
hidden  and  withdrawn,  in  the  retirement  of  the 
chamber,  in  the  stillness  of  the  night  season,  upon 
the  bed  of  sickness,  and  in  the  face  of  death,  the 
Bible  will  be  there,  its  several  words  how  often 
winged  with  their  several  and  special  messages 
to  heal  and  to  soothe,  to  uplift  and  uphold,  to 
invigorate  and  stir.  Nay,  more,  perhaps,  than 
this :  amid  the  crowds  of  the  court,  or  the  forum, 
or  the  street,  or  the  market-place,  where  every 
thought  of  every  soul  seems  to  be  set  upon  the 
excitements  of  ambition,  or  of  business,  or  of 
pleasure,  there  too,  even  there,  the  still  small 
voice  of  the  Holy  Bible  will  be  heard,  and  the 
soul,  aided  by  some  blessed  word,  may  find 
wings  like  a  dove,  may  flee  away  and  be  at 
rest." 

The  Testimony  of  American  Statesmen  and 
Writers. 

Of  American  statesmen  and  writers  we  may 
adduce : 
sj    I.    President  John  Quincy  Adams: 

**  The  first  and  almost  the  only  book  deserving 
of  universal  attention  is  the  Bible.  The  Bible  is 
the  Book  of  all  others  to  be  read  at  all  ages  and 
in  all  conditions  of  human  life;  not  to  be  read 
once  or  twice  through  and  then  laid  aside,  but 
to  be  read  in  small  portions  of  one  or  two  chap- 
ters every  day,  and  never  to  be  intermitted  except 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         121 

by  some  overruling  necessity.  I  speak  as  a  man 
of  the  world  to  men  of  the  world,  and  I  say  to 
you,  '  Search  the  Scriptures/ 

*'  I  have  for  many  years  made  it  a  practice 
to  read  through  the  Bible  once  a  year.  ...  It  is 
an  invaluable  and  inexhaustible  mine  of  knowl- 
edge and  virtue." 

2.  Andrew  Jackson,  President  of  the  United 
States.  When  he  lay  on  his  deathbed  he  pointed 
to  the  Family  Bible  which  lay  on  the  table  be- 
side him,  and  said  to  his  physician: 

'*  That  Book,  sir,  is  the  rock  on  which  our 
Republic  rests." 

3.  Senator  W.  B.  Leigh,  a  famous  Virginian 
lawyer : 

"  I  advise  every  man  to  read  his  Bible.  I  speak 
of  it  here  as  a  book  which  it  behooves  a  lawyer 
to  make  himself  thoroughly  acquainted  with.  It 
is  the  code  of  ethics  of  every  Christian  country 
on  the  globe,  and  tends,  above  all  other  books, 
to  elucidate  the  spirit  of  law  throughout  the 
Christian  world.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  part  of  the 
practical  law  of  every  Christian  nation,  whether 
recognized  as  such  or  not." 

4.  Daniel  Webster,  the  great  American  orator: 
"  From  the  time  that,  at  my  mother's  feet  or 

on  my  father's  knee,  I  first  learned  to  lisp  verses 
from  the  sacred  writings,  they  have  been  my  daily 
study  and  vigilant  contemplation.  If  there  be 
anything  in  my  style  or  thoughts  to  be  com- 
mended, the  credit  is  due  to  my  kind  parents  in 


122      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD   TODAY 

instilling-  into  my  mind  an  early  love  of  the 
Scriptures." 

And,  again, 

"If  we  abide  by  the  principles  taught  in  the 
Bible,  our  country  will  go  on  prospering  and 
to  prosper;  but  if  we  and  our  posterity  neglect 
its  instructions  and  authority,  no  man  can  tell 
how  sudden  a  catastrophe  may  overwhelm  us 
and  bury  our  glory  in  profound  obscurity." 

And  in  his  speech  on  the  completion  of  the 
Bunker  Hill  Monument  (1843),  he  said:  "The 
Bible  is  a  book  of  faith,  and  a  book  of  doctrine, 
and  a  book  of  morals,  and  a  book  of  religion, 
of  especial  revelation  from  God." 

When  he  lay  on  his  deathbed  his  physician 
quoted  to  him  the  verse  of  Psalm  23  — "  Yea, 
though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil:  for  Thou  art  with 
me;  Thy  rod  and  Thy  staff  they  comfort  me." 
And  the  great  strong  man  faltered  out,  "  Yes ; 
that  is  what  I  want.  Thy  rod.  Thy  rod;  Thy 
staff,  Thy  staff."  They  were  the  last  words  he 
spoke. 

5.  Secretary  Seward :  "  The  whole  life  of  hu- 
man progress  is  suspended  on  the  ever-growing 
influence  of  the  Bible." 

6.  General  Grant,  President  of  the  United 
States,  sent  a  message  to  this  effect  to  the  Sunday- 
school  children  of  America  in  1876:  "Hold  fast 
to  the  Bible  as  the  sheet  anchor  to  your  liberties. 
Write  its  precepts  in  your  heart  and  practise  them 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         123 

in  your  lives.  To  the  influence  of  this  Book  we 
are  indebted  for  all  the  progress  made  in  true 
civilization,  and  to  this  we  must  look  as  our 
guide  in  the  future." 

7.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who  did  more 
than  any  man  to  sweep  away  the  curse  of  Ameri- 
can slavery,  said,  "  Take  away  the  Bible  from 
us,  and  our  warfare  against  intemperance  and 
impurity  and  oppression  and  infidelity  and  crime 
is  at  an  end.  We  have  no  authority  to  speak, 
no  courage  to  act." 

8.  "  Of  all  books,"  said  Mr.  Dana  to  the  stu- 
dents of  Union  College,  *'  of  all  books,  the  most 
indispensable  and  the  most  useful,  the  one  whose 
knowledge  is  most  effective,  is  the  Bible.  There 
is  no  book  from  which  more  valuable  lessons  can 
be  learned.  I  am  considering  it  now  not  as  a 
religious  book,  but  as  a  manual  of  utility,  of  pro- 
fessional preparation  and  professional  use  for  a 
journalist.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  book  whose 
style  is  more  suggestive  and  more  instructive, 
from  which  you  learn  more  directly  that  sublime 
simplicity  which  never  exaggerates,  which  re- 
counts the  greatest  event  with  solemnity,  of 
course,  but  without  sentimentality  or  affectation, 
none  which  you  open  with  such  confidence  and 
lay  down  with  such  reverence.  There  is  no 
Book  like  the  Bible." 

9.  Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner  wrote  in 
Harper's  Magazine: 

"  Wholly  apart  from  its  religious  or  from  its 


124      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ethical  value,  the  Bible  is  the  one  Book  that  no 
intelligent  person  who  wishes  to  come  into  con- 
tact with  the  world  of  thought  and  to  share  the 
ideas  of  the  great  minds  of  the  Christian  era  can 
afford  to  be  ignorant  of.  All  modern  literature 
and  all  art  are  permeated  with  it.  There  is 
scarcely  a  great  work  in  the  language  that  can  be 
fully  understood  and  enjoyed  without  this  knowl- 
edge, so  full  is  it  of  allusions  and  illustrations 
from  the  Bible.  This  is  true  of  fiction,  of  poetry, 
gf  economic  and  philosophic  works,  and  also  of 
the  scientific  and  even  agnostic  treatises.  It  is 
not  at  all  a  question  of  religion,  or  theology,  or 
of  dogma;  it  is  a  question  of  general  intelli- 
gence. A  boy  or  girl  at  college  in  the  presence 
of  the  works  set  for  either  to  master  without  a 
fair  knowledge  of  the  Bible  is  an  ignoramus,  and 
is  disadvantaged  accordingly.  It  is  in  itself  almost 
a  liberal  education,  as  many  great  masters  in 
literature  have  testified.  It  has  so  entered  into 
law,  literature,  thought,  the  whole  modern  Ufe 
of  the  Christian  world,  that  ignorance  of  it  is  a 
most  serious  disadvantage  to  the  student." 

10.  We  should  perhaps  hardly  have  expected 
a  glowing  eulogy  of  the  Bible  from  Mr.  Walt 
Whitman.  Yet  in  his  "  November  Boughs  "  he 
wrote : 

"  The  Bible  as  Poetry.  I  've  said  nothing  yet 
of  the  cumulus  of  associations  of  the  Bible  as  a 
poetic  entity,  and  of  every  portion  of  it.  Not 
the  old  edifice  only  —  the  congeries  also  of  events 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  BIBLE         125 

and  struggles  and  surroundings,  of  which  it  has 
been  the  scene  and  motive  —  even  the  horrors, 
dreads,  deaths.  How  many  ages  and  generations 
have  brooded  and  wept  and  agonized  over  this 
Book!  What  untellable  joys  and  ecstasies,  what 
support  to  martyrs  at  the  stake,  from  it !  To  what 
myriads  has  it  been  the  shore  and  rock  of  safety 
—  the  refuge  from  driving  tempest  and  wreck! 
Translated  in  all  languages,  how  it  has  united 
this  diverse  world!  Of  civilized  lands  today, 
whose  of  our  retrospects  has  it  not  interwoven 
and  linked  and  permeated?  Not  only  does  it 
bring  us  what  is  clasped  within  its  covers:  nay, 
that  is  the  least  of  what  it  brings.  Of  its  thou- 
sands there  is  not  a  verse,  not  a  word,  but  is 
thick-studded  with  human  emotion.  Successions 
of  fathers  and  sons,  mothers  and  daughters,  of 
our  own  antecedents,  inseparable  from  that  back- 
ground of  us,  on  which,  phantasmal  as  it  is,  all 
that  we  are  today  inevitably  depends  —  our  an- 
cestry, our  past." 

II.  Let  me  add  the  testimony  of  one  of  the 
best  known  of  the  great  philanthropists  of 
America. 

It  is  related  of  George  Peabody  that  when  he 
was  an  old  man,  sitting  in  his  office  in  London 
one  day,  a  boy  brought  him  a  New  Testament 
for  some  purpose,  I  know  not  what;  but  the 
old  man,  looking  up,  said :  "  My  boy,  you  carry 
that  book  easily  in  your  youth,  but  when  you  are 
as  old  as  I  am,  it  must  carry  you." 


®|ie  aiiftms  "tTalue  of  tlje  ©ft  SCesdament 

GEORGE   L.    ROBINSON  1 

Ever  since  Marcion  and  the  Gnostics  empha- 
sized the  antithesis  between  the  God  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  God  of  the  New,  extreme 
views  have  prevailed  among  men  as  to  whether 
the  Old  Testament  is  really  an  essential  part  of 
Christianity.  Some  are  disposed  to  cut  the  New 
Testament  aloof  from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
altogether,  because,  as  they  claim,  Christianity 
can  live  on  quite  as  well  without  them.  Others 
regard  the  Old  Testament  as  "  the  millstone  about 
the  neck  of  Christianity,"  a  stumbling-block  to 
Christians  as  much  as  the  Cross  is  to  the  Jews. 
While  others,  who  are  not  so  explicitly  antag- 
onistic in  their  attitude,  have  no  adequate  appre- 
ciation of  the  preciousness  of  the  treasure 
which  has  come  down  to  them  from  remote  an- 
tiquity. The  same  men,  it  should  be  noted,  are 
usually  lacking  also  in  their  appreciation  of  the 
New  Testament.  For,  as  Dr.  George  Adam 
Smith    observes,    "  It    is    one    of    not    the    least 

1  This  chapter  is  taken  from  the  book  of  the  same  name, 
published  by  Association  Press  :  New  York. 


128      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

faults  of  a  merely  academic  criticism,  that  it 
never  appeals  to  Christian  standards  except 
when  it  would  disparage  the  men  of  the  Old 
Covenant."  ^ 

Our  estimate  of  the  worth  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment will  depend  largely  upon  our  attitude  to 
the  Hebrews  as  the  recipients  and  custodians  of 
God's  revelation  to  men.  Their  history  is  "  like 
a  piece  of  shot  silk ;  hold  it  at  one  angle  and  you 
see  dark  purple,  hold  it  at  another  and  you  see 
bright  golden  tints."  Too  often  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  studied  with  purely  aesthetic  motives. 
Frequently  it  is  approached  from  the  strictly 
scientific  point  of  view.  But  neither  —  nor  both 
—  of  these  methods  is  adequate  to  unlock  its 
wealth.  The  Old  Testament  will  not  yield  itself 
to  mere  aesthetic  or  scientific  investigation.  The 
Old  Testament,  above  all  other  books,  has  spiritual 
and  religious  value  as  the  record  of  God's  reve- 
lation to  the  world.  The  roots  of  Christian  teach- 
ing go  deep  down  into  Hebrew  soil,  and  to  under- 
stand the  whole  tree  one  must  study  the  roots. 
The  institutions  of  the  Hebrews  are  types  of 
Christian  truth.  Christianity,  as  well  as  the  Bible, 
has  its  Old  Testament  half.  The  Old  Testament 
is  an  integral  part  of  the  Word  of  God,  a  source 
of  inspiration,  and  a  guide  to  ethical  life.  The 
problem  of  our  day  is  to  rediscover  its  value  and 
to  portray  it  to  men. 

1  Jerusalem,  II.  343. 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  129 

The  Old  Testament   Has   Intrinsic  Value   of 
its  Own. 

That  the  Old  Testament  has  historical  value  is 
obvious  to  every  student  of  antiquity.  It  is  the 
Ariadne's  thread  to  the  archaeologist.  (Cf. 
Genesis  10  and  14.)  It  is  likewise  the  fountain 
head  of  what  is  known  as  "  the  philosophy  of 
history."  The  Hebrews  were  the  first  to  take  a 
teleological  view  of  the  world,  the  first  to  interpret 
human  events  in  terms  of  God's  providence. 
Other  histories  displayed  the  disciplinary  love  of 
God,  but  it  was  left  for  the  Hebrews  to  discern 
that  love  and  to  describe  it  in  terms  of  God's 
love.  To  them  it  was  not  enough  to  study  mere 
events,  they  sought  the  underlying  principles 
and  showed  the  nexus  of  cause  and  effect. 
Ottley,  in  eulogizing  this  quality  in  Hebrew  his- 
torians, goes  so  far  as  to  define  their  inspiration 
as  "  the  ability  to  see  God's  hand  in  human 
events." 

The  literary  excellence,  too,  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  widely  recognized.  The  charm  of  its 
simplicity,  the  variety  of  its  imagery,  the  grace 
of  its  diction,  the  melody  of  its  rhythm,  and  the 
richness  of  its  vocabulary  and  thought,  are  con- 
spicuous features  of  the  whole  Old  Testament  — 
of  its  history,  biography,  oratory,  prophecy,  and 
poetry  alike.  Even  our  own  English  vocabulary 
has  been  enriched  by  words  taken  over  from  the 
Hebrew,  such  as  Messiah,  Sabbath,  manna,  Naz- 
arite,   seraph,   cherub,   shekel,   satan,   shibboleth, 


I30      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

and  many  others.  Almost  countless  expressions 
and  phrases  of  our  every-day  speech  come  di- 
rectly from  the  Old  Testament:  for  example, 
"  See  eye  to  eye,"  '*  Let  us  eat  and  drink ;  for  to- 
morrow we  die,"  "  Precept  upon  precept,  line 
upon  line,"  "  The  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a 
weary  land,"  "  Without  money  and  without 
price,"  *'  Peace  like  a  river,"  "  Everlasting  life," 
etc.,  etc. 

As  a  monograph  on  comparative  religion,  also, 
the  Old  Testament  is  unique.  Scant  indeed  would 
be  the  sources  handed  down  from  antiquity  were 
the  Old  Testament  of  the  Hebrews  lost.  This  is 
true  not  alone  because  of  its  quality  but  also 
because  of  its  character  and  genius.  Above  all 
the  other  religions  of  antiquity,  that  of  the  He- 
brews is  conspicuous  for  originality.  The  He- 
brews seem  to  have  had  a  special  talent  for 
truth  that  was  theistic  and  for  verities  that  were 
eternal.  Through  their  fertility  of  conception, 
which  bears  the  unmistakable  marks  of  inspira- 
tion, they  discovered  some  truths  once  for  all, 
truths  which  have  ever  since  been  regarded  as 
essential  factors  in  all  true  religion.  Primary 
among  these  is  their  conception  of  God.  The 
Jewish  doctrine  of  God  is  absolutely  unique. 
To  the  Hebrew  mind,  Jehovah  is  not  only  a 
majestic  sovereign,  strong  and  terrible,  but  He 
is  personal,  holy,  merciful,  righteous,  and  good: 
a  Father,  also,  who  pitieth  His  children,  and  who, 
though  transcendent,  condescends  to  hold  com- 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  131 

mimion  and  fellowship  with  the  humblest  of  His 
saints.  The  Old  Testament  never  attempts  to 
prove  the  existence  of  God;  it  assumes  this  as 
axiomatic.  It  is  *'  the  fool "  who  says  in  his 
heart,  "There  is  no  God"  (Ps.  14:1). 

The  Hebrews  also  discovered  conscience.  In 
due  time  they  even  produced  an  order  of  men 
who  became  a  conscience  for  the  nation.  Modern 
prophets  too  frequently  shrink  from  being  a 
conscience  unto  their  people.  In  order  to  express 
Israel's  moral  sense  of  obligation  to  God,  Moses 
formulated  a  comprehensive  code  of  civil  and 
religious  law,  which  lifted  them  above  the  plane 
of  their  heathen  contemporaries.  Their  neighbors 
were  content  to  worship  Nature ;  the  Hebrews,  on 
the  contrary,  early  discovered  that  the  law  which 
declares  the  will  of  God  is  better  than  nature 
or  "  the  heavens  "  which  tell  of  His  glory:  "  The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  .  .  .  but  the 
law  of  Jehovah  (in  contrast)  is  perfect"  (Ps. 
19:  I,  7).  They  also  taught  men  to  pray,  giving 
expression  to  their  desires  through  sacrifices, 
which  was  the  antique  manner  of  obtaining  the 
divine  favor.  Isaac,  for  example,  entreated  Je- 
hovah for  his  wife,  literally,  "  offered  sweet 
smelling  fragrance  " ;  for  the  word  in  the  origi- 
nal, atar,  which  is  translated  "  entreated,"  is  akin 
to  that  in  our  English  expression  "  attar  of  roses  " 
(Gen.  25:21). 

The  Hebrews  also  cultivated  faith,  as  the  es- 
sential element  in  religion.    And  they  emphasized 


132      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

duty,  in  particular  the  primary  obligations  of  hon- 
esty, righteousness,  obedience,  and  charity.  They 
even  enunciated  for  the  first  time  what  might 
be  called  the  germ  of  "  Christian  Endeavor,"  as, 
for  example,  when  Malachi  commends  the  priests 
who  "turned  many  away  from  iniquity"  (Mai. 
2:6),  or  when  the  Hebrew  sage  declares  that 
"  he  that  watereth  shall  be  watered  also  himself  " 
(Prov.  II :  25). 

The  Hebrews  were  the  first  also  of  the  nations 
to  teach  the  sacred  character  of  patriotism:  for 
example,  Zebulun  and  Naphtali  are  praised  in  the 
Song  of  Deborah  for  having  jeoparded  their 
lives  unto  the  death  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
field  (Judg.  5:18).  Immortality  likewise  (Pss. 
16  and  17)  and  redemption  (Isa.  63:8),  forgive- 
ness of  sin  (Ps.  32)  and  victory  over  death 
(Isa.  26:19,  Dan.  12:2),  are  all  carefully  un- 
folded, with  greater  or  lesser  fullness,  in  the  Old 
Testament  —  not  so  fully,  however,  as  to  pre- 
clude the  necessity  of  the  incarnation.  It  was 
left  to  Christ  to  bring  life  and  immortality  to 
light;  He  it  was  who  filled  with  richer,  deeper 
ethical  content  the  rudimentary  forms  which  the 
Hebrews  were  as  yet  unable  to  appreciate.  For 
we  must  ever  remember  that  while  God  sent  the 
nations  to  common  school  and  Israel  to  high 
school,  so  to  speak,  He  sent  the  disciples  to  col- 
lege at  the  feet  of  Christ.  Thus  He  revealed 
Himself  "  by  divers  portions." 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  133 

Truth  Taught  in  Characters. 

Most  remarkable  also  is  the  fact  that  in  the 
Old  Testament  the  great  truths  of  religion  are 
presented  not  in  abstract  form  but  concretely,  and 
indeed  so  attractively  that  the  reader  is  charmed 
by  their  simplicity  and  beauty,  and  by  the  fresh- 
ness of  Hebrew  Hfe  and  faith.  Take,  for  in- 
stance, some  of  the  great  characters  of  Old 
Testament  history.  In  the  story  of  Noah,  what 
a  parable  is  there  of  encouragement  to  those  who 
are  misunderstood,  misinterpreted,  and  scoffed  at ; 
in  the  career  of  Abraham,  what  an  instructive 
illustration  of  the  summons  which  must  come 
to  us  all  to  go  out  into  the  great  unknown  country 
of  the  other  life;  in  the  ambitious,  unscrupulous 
character  of  Jacob,  what  a  likeness  to  the  spiritual 
biography  of  many  a  man ;  in  the  story  of  Joseph, 
what  a  parable  of  the  way  to  bear  adversity;  in 
that  of  Gideon,  what  a  summons  to  faithful  en- 
deavor with  assurance  of  victory ;  in  Samson,  what 
a  lesson  of  the  way  in  which  the  noblest  oppor- 
tunities of  birth  and  power  may  be  prostituted; 
in  Samuel,  what  a  splendid  type  both  of  a  normal 
religious  childhood  and  of  a  normal  religious 
life ;  in  Isaiah,  what  a  stately  example  of  one  who 
recognized  that  public  affairs  demand  the  de- 
voted service  of  the  holiest  and  most  consecrated 
men;  in  Jeremiah,  what  a  model  of  personal,  in- 
dividual moral  responsibility;  while  in  Job,  tried 
in  the  furnace  of  affliction,  what  imperishable 
evidence  that  the  present  life  is  all  too  short  for 


134      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD   TODAY 

the  realization   of  a  divine  theodicy   of  perfect 
justice,  and  of  the  inevitabiHty  of  a  life  beyond. 

Alleged  Infelicities  and  Blemishes. 

In  comparison  with  such  great  masterpieces 
of  religious  art  — such  living,  throbbing  char- 
acters—  how  unimportant  and  insignificant  are 
the  alleged  infelicities  and  blemishes  in  the  Old 
Testament  to  which  men  sometimes  superficially 
point  the  finger  of  disapproval:  for  example, 
polygamy,  divorce,  slavery,  revenge,  ritual,  the 
vindictiveness  of  the  psalmists,  and  judgment;  the 
extent  and  character  of  which  have  been  so  greatly 
exaggerated  by  the  enemies  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. And,  once  more,  granted  that  the  Old 
Testament  frequently  tells  of  judgment,  and 
paints  solemn  pictures  of  universal  doom  upon 
those  who  disobey  the  commands  of  Jehovah- 
God,  the  New  Testament  is  far  more  explicit 
in  the  emphasis  it  places  on  eternal  doom.  It  is 
indeed  Jesus  Himself  who  describes  the  doom 
of  hell  as  a  place  of  outer  darkness  and  of 
weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth  (Matt.  25).  It 
was  His  loving  lips  that  shaped  this  form  of 
words,  so  heart-touching  in  its  wailing  but  so 
decisive  in  its  proclamation  of  blackness,  home- 
lessness,  and  sorrow.  In  the  words  of  the  late 
Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren,  that  "  prince  of 
preachers  "  and  king  of  expositors,  "  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  was  no  mere  soft  and  pliant  sym- 
pathetic helpfulness;  it  could  smite  and  stab  and 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  135 

be  severe,  and  knit  its  brow,  and  speak  stern 
words,  as  all  true  service  must.  For  it  is  not 
service  but  cruelty  to  sympathize  with  the  sinner 
and  say  nothing  in  condemnation  of  his  sin."  ^ 
There  are,  of  necessity,  two  sides  to  moral 
religion,  one  stern,  the  other  tender.  The 
law,  it  is  true,  speaks  in  stern  imperatives;  but 
the  gospel  is  as  rigid  in  its  requirements  as  the 
law;  in  fact,  its  demands  and  penalties  are  in 
several  instances  even  more  severe  than  those 
of  the  law. 

The  Old  Testament  is  the  Interpreter  of  the 
New. 

We  frequently  hear  men  say  that  the  New 
Testament  is  the  key  to  the  Old,  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  the  Old  Testament  is  the  interpreter 
of  the  New.  The  New  Testament  is  conceived 
in  the  womb  of  Hebrew  thought.  Pedagogically 
as  well  as  apologetically  the  Old  Testament  is  an 
indispensable  part  of  Christianity.  "  No  scrip- 
ture is  of  private  interpretation." 

Few  men  adequately  appreciate  what  the  Old 
Testament  has  meant  to  Christianity.  The  Old 
Testament  canon  has  had  a  history  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church  as  well  as  in  the  Jewish.  It  has 
wrought  itself  into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of 
Christianity.  This  was  possible  because  the  es- 
sence of  the  Old  Testament  is  love.     Even  the 

*  Expositions  of  Holy  Scripture;  on  Matt.  20 :  28,  p.  76. 


136      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Decalogue  is  introduced  by  a  preface  which  im- 
pHcitly  states  that  it  was  because  Jehovah  loved 
Israel  that  He  gave  them  a  code  of  laws :  "  I 
am  Jehovah  thy  God  who  brought  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage," 
therefore,  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before 
me"  (Exod.  20:2,  3).  Men  are  wont  to  say 
that  the  Old  Testament  reveals  a  God  of  justice, 
whereas  the  New  Testament,  a  God  of  love.  Such 
a  statement  is  much  narrower  than  the  facts. 
The  God  of  the  Old  Testament  is  also  the  God 
of  the  New,  and  His  name  is  Love:  to  this  the 
Psalms,  Deuteronomy,  and  especially  the  prophe- 
cies of  Hosea  bear  witness.  The  Old  Testament, 
indeed,  describes  God  as  dwelling  in  a  temple, 
the  New  Testament  as  tabernacling  in  the  heart. 
Ancient  temples  had  no  windows,  Deity  dwelt  in 
thick  darkness  (i  Kings  8:12);  in  the  New 
Testament  also  God  dwells  in  mystery,  but  it  is 
the  mystery  of  light.  According  to  the  Old 
Testament,  God  breathed  into  man  the  breath 
of  life  (Gen.  ^'.'j')',  according  to  Paul,  "In  him 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  "  (Acts  17: 
28).  The  Old  Testament  gives  prominence  to  the 
solidarity  of  the  nation ;  the  New  Testament  to 
the  value  of  the  individual.  The  messages  of  the 
prophets  are  emphatically  social,  those  of  Christ 
individual  and  evangelistic.  The  popular  na- 
tional note  of  the  Old  Testament  has  been  re- 
peatedly echoed  and  re-echoed  throughout  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church.    ''  The  Apostolic 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  137 

church  worked  officially  upon  the  democratic  pre- 
cedents set  her  throughout  the  law  and  history 
of  the  Old  Covenant."  ^  Martial  psalms,  like 
the  68th,  have  been  sung  on  the  plains  of  the 
Palatinate,  from  the  lips  of  Cromwell's  Iron- 
sides, and  in  Scotland's  struggle  for  crown  and 
covenant. 

The  ideals  of  the  two  Covenants  are  practically 
the  same :  that  of  the  Old  Testament  is  holiness : 
**  Ye  shall  be  holy ;  for  I,  Jehovah,  your  God, 
am  holy  "  (Lev.  19:  2)  ;  that  of  Jesus,  perfection, 
"  Ye,  therefore,  shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly 
Father  is  perfect  "  (Matt.  5  :  48).  There  is  doubt- 
less a  slight  difference  in  the  ethical  contents  of 
these  conceptions,  but  in  essence  they  are  the 
same  —  likeness  to  God.  The  reason  for  the 
difference  is  patent  to  any  one  who  will  pause 
to  reflect :  the  Old  Testament  covers  millenniums 
of  ethical  and  religious  development,  the  New 
Testament  less  than  a  century. 

As  Dr.  George  Adam  Smith  observes :  "  The 
Old  Testament  lies  not  under  but  behind  the 
New.  It  is  not  the  quarry  of  the  excavator  or 
archaeologist.  It  is  the  Hinterland  of  the  New ; 
part  of  the  same  continent  of  truth,  without  whose 
ampler  areas  and  wider  watersheds  the  rivers, 
which  grew  to  their  fullness  in  the  new  dispensa- 
tion, could  never  have  gained  one  tenth  of  their 
volume  or  their  influence."  Or,  as  Augustine  has 
suggested : 

^  G.  A.  Smith,  Jerusalem,  I.,  p.  455. 


138      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

The  New  is  in  the  Old  contained, 
The  Old  is  in  the  New  retained; 
The  New  is  in  the  Old  concealed, 
The  Old  is  in  the  New. revealed; 
The  New  is  in  the  Old  enfolded, 
The  Old  is  in  the  New  wnfolded. 

Or,  as  Professor  Sanday  puts  it,  ''  The  New 
Testament  is  latent  in  the  Old,  the  Old  Testament 
is  patent  in  the  New."  Accordingly,  in  our  study 
of  the  Old  Testament,  we  should  never  lose  sight 
of  its  goal  in  the  New ;  and  in  our  study  of  the 
New  Testament,  we  should  never  lose  sight  of 
its  origin  in  the  Old. 

The  Old  Quoted  in  the  New. 

The  actual  necessity  of  studying  the  New  Tes- 
tament in  the  light  of  the  Old  becomes  more 
obvious  when  we  recall  that  there  are  not  fewer 
than  five  hundred  direct  quotations  from  the  Old 
Testament  in  the  New.  New  Testament  saints 
found  it  possible  to  adopt  Old  Testament  utter- 
ances as  their  own.  Religious  fervor  speaks  the 
same  language.  Not  only  the  "  Benedictus  "  of 
Zacharias  (Luke  1:68-79),  which  is  so  steeped 
in  Old  Testament  language  that  some  one  has 
called  it  ''  an  anthology  from  the  Psalms  and 
Prophets,"  but  the  Beatitudes  also,  the  conclusion 
to  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Hosannas  of  the  mul- 
titude on  the  occasion  of  our  Lord's  triumphant 
entry  into  Jerusalem,  and  even  the  Master's 
gracious  invitation,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  139 

rest,"  are  full  of  Old  Testament  reminiscences 
and  richly  colored  with  Old  Testament  thought 
and  phraseology.  Likewise  some  of  the  most 
precious  phrases  in  the  New  Testament,  such  as 
"  the  living  God,"  ''  the  great  Shepherd  of  the 
sheep,"  and  "  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  cove- 
nant," are  but  echoes  of  the  language  of  the  Old 
Testament.  And  what  is  incidentally  very  re- 
markable, the  most  frequently  quoted  psalm  of 
the  collection,  after  the  23d,  is  a  psalm  of  impre- 
cation, the  69th.  But  no  doctrine  or  teaching  of 
Judaism  is  taken  over  into  Christianity  without, 
of  course,  being  transfigured  in  the  process. 

But  still  more  binding  of  the  two  covenants 
in  one  are  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, which  have  found  their  fulfillment  in  the 
New,  and  which  prepared  the  Hebrew  mind  for 
the  coming  of  the  Christ.  Without  exception  the 
Hebrew  prophets  were  optimists.  To  one  and  all 
of  them  Israel's  golden  age  lay  in  the  future, 
not,  as  with  so  many  other  nations,  in  the  past. 
Many  of  them  predicted  definitely  the  advent 
of  One  who  would  bring  spiritual  salvation  to 
Israel.  Jeremiah  even  predicted  that  a  new  Cove- 
nant would  some  day  supersede  the  Old  (Jer. 
31 :  31-34).  Obviously,  therefore,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  the  interpreter  of  the  New,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  be  so  long  as  Jesus  Christ  is  regarded 
as  the  fulfillment  of  Messianic  hope.  And  ac- 
cordingly, "  it  is  necessary,"  as  Professor  Sanday 
observes,  "  to  go  back  to  the  old  Hebraic  foun- 


I40      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

dations  of  our  religion  and  lay  them  again  more 
deeply  and  firmly,  or  rather  see  how  they  have 
been  laid  by  the  Great  Architect,  who  is  so  much 
wiser  and  mightier  than  we." 

Paul  was  not  only  a  friend  of  the  law  and 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  law  himself,  he 
presupposed  a  remarkable  acquaintance  with  the 
Old  Testament  among  the  members  of  his 
churches.  Timothy  especially  he  commends  be- 
cause *'  from  a  babe  "  he  had  known  the  sacred 
writings  "  which  are  able  to  make  one  wise  unto 
salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ." 
And  the  same  sacred  writings  he  most  cordially 
recommended  to  his  readers  when  he  said :  ''  Every 
Scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profitable  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion which  is  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  complete,  furnished  completely  unto 
every  good  work  "(II  Tim.  3:  15-17). 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  even  more 
minute  in  its  comparison  of  the  Old  and  New 
Covenants.  Yet  in  it  also  God's  revelation  is 
declared  to  be  continuous. 

Christ's  Attitude  to  the  Old  Testament. 

But  the  final  test  of  the  abiding  value  of  the 
Old  Testament  must  be  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Whatever  accords  with  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ  will  be  abiding.  We  come  then  to 
the  question.  What  was  the  attitude  of  Christ  to 
the  Old  Testament? 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  141 

Of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain:  The  Old 
Testament  was  Christ's  Bible,  and  He  was  well 
conversant  with  it.  On  more  than  one  occasion 
in  His  disputes  with  the  Pharisees,  He  showed 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  Old  Testament, 
and  drew  heavily  upon  it  (Matt.  21:  16).  Like 
the  Jewish  Rabbis  of  His  time,  He  emphasized 
the  divinity  of  the  law  and  found  spiritual  life 
in  it  (John  5  :  39).  He  accepted  absolutely  every 
precept  of  the  Old  Testament.  Even  the  lex 
talionis  of  Exodus  21 :  24,  "  an  eye  for  an  eye, 
and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  He  left  standing  as  a 
basis,  so  to  speak,  of  His  own  higher  mandate, 
which  Matthew  Arnold  has  very  appropriately 
called  "  the  secret  of  Jesus,"  passively  under  trial 
(Matt.  5:38-41).  Jesus  abrogated  nothing.  As 
some  one  has  well  said,  "  No  one  save  Jesus  had 
the  right  to  lay  the  law  aside,  and  He  made  it 
immortal." 

He  explicitly  stated,  "  I  came  not  to  destroy 
the  law  or  the  prophets,  but  to  fulfill " ;  adding 
that  "  not  one  jot  or  tittle "  should  pass  away 
from  the  law  till  all  things  be  accomplished  ( Matt. 
5:17,  18).  Jesus,  too,  spoke  as  a  lawgiver: 
"  But  I  say  unto  you."  However,  when  He  pro- 
claimed the  Golden  Rule,  "  All  things  therefore 
whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto 
you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them,"  He  very 
carefully  added,  "  for  this  is  the  law  and  the 
prophets  "  (Matt.  7:  12).  In  terms  of  this  Rule, 
Jesus  would  obviously  have  us  interpret  all  Old 


142      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Testament  commands.  He  Himself  invariably 
upheld  the  validity  of  the  written  law.  What  He 
attacked  was  the  Rabbinic  interpretations  placed 
upon  it  by  human  commentators  and  unscrupu- 
lous casuists.  Rules  destroy  principles.  Through 
the  mechanical  rules  of  exegesis  the  Rabbis 
missed  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is 
as  unjust  to  accuse  the  Old  Testament  of  being 
responsible  for  the  Pharisaic  restrictions  of 
Christ's  times,  as  to  charge  Christianity  with  the 
corruptions  of  the  Roman  Church  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation. 

Jesus  nowhere  gives  the  shadow  of  a  hint  that 
any  statement  of  the  Old  Testament  is  inaccurate 
or  needed  revision  or  correction.  Jesus,  like  His 
people,  is  distinguished  for  His  originality,  but 
His  originality  consists  not  so  much  in  the  new 
truths  which  He  enunciated  as  in  the  discoveries 
of  new  meaning  which  He  placed  on  the  law 
and  prophecy.  Jesus  penetrated  deep  down  be- 
low the  isolated  precepts  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  unified  as  well  as  transformed  them.  The 
Old  Testament  was  not  simply  the  foundation 
of  His  teaching,  not  merely  the  historical  pre- 
requisite of  His  claims,  but  a  constituent  element 
of  His  message,  the  background  of  His  thought, 
even  part  and  parcel  of  His  conception  of  religion. 

When  He  was  asked,  for  example,  which  was 
the  greatest  commandment,  He  cited  Deut.  6 :  5 
and  Lev.  19:18,  not  merely  as  individual  precepts 
but  as  indicating  the  spirit  that  gives  value  to 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  143 

all  obedience;  and  He  emphatically  affirmed  that 
upon  these  two  commandments  —  love  to  God 
and  love  to  men  —  hang  suspended  the  whole 
law  and  the  prophets.  Thus  Jesus  soared  away 
far  above  the  petty  disputes  of  the  schools  about 
the  relative  worth  of  isolated  precepts,  teaching 
that  the  sum  of  man's  duty  and  the  germ  of 
all  goodness  spring  from  supreme  and  unlimited 
love  to  God.  In  this  way  He  shifted  the  center 
of  men's  thoughts  from  conduct  to  character, 
from  deeds  to  affections.  The  Old  Testament 
sages  had  said,  "  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart 
so  is  he."  Jesus  said,  as  a  man  loves  so  is  he. 
Duties  are  unified  in  love. 

The  Realized  Ideal. 

Christ,  moreover,  actually  fulfilled  the  law  and 
the  prophets.  He  not  only  recognized  Himself  as 
the  predicted  Messiah,  He  also  realized  in  Him- 
self the  ideal  of  the  prophets.  "  And  beginning 
from  Moses  and  from  all  the  prophets,  he  inter- 
preted to  them  [the  two  disciples  on  the  way 
to  Emmaus]  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  con- 
cerning himself"  (Luke  24:27),  The  seers  of 
old  had  dreamed  of  an  empire  which  should  rule 
provinces;  Jesus  established  a  Kingdom  which 
controls  passion  and  exalts  love.  His  contem- 
poraries indeed  were  disappointed  in  Him  be- 
cause He  did  not  establish  a  temporal  kingdom. 
Nevertheless  He  realized  the  spiritual  ideals  of 
their  illustrious  ancestors  just  as  the  flower  fulfills 


144        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  purpose  of  the  bud.  "  The  bud  passes  away 
as  the  flower  comes,  but  it  is  not  destroyed,  be- 
cause it  has  fulfilled  its  destiny."  ^  In  this  sense 
Jesus  became  the  incarnation  of  the  law  as  well 
as  the  incarnation  of  love. 

Our  Attitude  to  the  Old  Testament. 

Christ's  attitude  to  the  Old  Testament  must 
determine  ours.  He  is  God,  He  is  Truth.  Fol- 
lowing Christ's  example,  some  of  the  greatest 
thinkers  the  race  has  ever  produced,  as  Gladstone, 
have  recognized  that  in  the  Old  Testament  we 
have  inherited  from  the  Jewish  Church  a  very 
precious  legacy.  Bishop  Westcott,  one  of  the 
very  greatest  New  Testament  scholars  of  modern 
times,  freely  acknowledges  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  an  essential  part  of  the  Christian's  Bible. 
The  fact  that  it  teaches  the  simplest  elements 
of  religion,  and  begins  with  the  utmost  rudiments 
of  truth,  such  as  are  contained  in  Genesis,  does 
not  destroy  its  abiding  value.  We  do  not  discard 
the  alphabet  when  we  begin  to  read.  We  do  not 
remove  the  base  of  a  pyramid  in  order  to  study 
its  apex. 

Through  the  Old  Testament  the  ancient  world 
still  speaks  most  eloquently.  Human  nature  is 
a  constant  quantity.  The  types  described  in  the 
Old  Testament  are  typical  and  practical.  Con- 
sequently we  dare  assert  that  the  Old  Testament 

1  Barton,  The  Roots  of  Christian  Teaching  as  Found  in 
the  Old  Testament,  p.  269. 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  145 

is  destined,  because  of  its  inherent  merit,  to  con- 
tinue a  fresh  fountain  of  Hving  truth,  which  will 
ever  help  to  invigorate  and  restore,  to  purify  and 
refine,  to  ennoble  and  enrich  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual well-being  of  mankind. 

Who  can  possibly  estimate  the  moral  influence 
of  the  Old  Testament  upon  the  race!  So  long 
as  sin  exists  in  the  world  there  will  continue  to 
be  need  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  So  long  as 
greed  and  selfishness  are  found  among  men  there 
will  be  the  necessity  of  Law.  Law  is  not  annulled 
by  love ;  rather  love  carries  on  its  work  in  a  law- 
governed  sphere.  Even  the  hygienic  laws  of  Le- 
viticus are  not  yet  obsolete,  neither  will  they  be 
obsolete  so  long  as  statisticians  tell  us  that  the 
average  age  of  Gentile  life  is  2.^  years  while  that 
of  Jewish  is  37.  So  long  as  men  are  tried  and 
tested,  the  Book  of  Job  will  be  imperishable;  so 
long  as  old  age  overtakes  the  sons  of  men,  the 
Book  of  Ecclesiastes  will  furnish  timely  instruc- 
tion to  boys  and  girls  to  remember  also  their 
Creator  in  the  days  of  their  youth;  so  long  as 
the  race  knows  sorrow  and  sighing  the  Shepherd 
Psalm  will  remain  immortal ;  "  for  though  it 
came  from  an  Oriental  heart  and  is  expressed  in 
terms  of  Oriental  experience,  it  deals  with  the 
deep  things  of  life  with  a  simplicity  so  noble 
that  it  touches  the  heart  of  every  generation.^ 

The  chief  enemy  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
ignorance  of  it.    For  more  than  two  millenniums 

*  McFadyen,  The  City  with  Foundations,  p.  201. 


146       THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  Old  Testament  has  circulated  among  men, 
as  Dr.  Barton  expresses  it,  "revealing  the  heart 
of  man  to  himself,  holding  before  human  eyes 
the  law  of  God,  awakening  the  conscience,  un- 
folding the  story  of  the  Father's  forgiveness  in 
Christ,  and  forming  by  its  lofty  teaching  the 
characters  of  the  saints."  And  it  is  destined, 
I  firmly  believe,  to  live  on  so  long  as  true  re- 
ligion holds  sway  over  human  hearts ;  for,  though 
we  may  put  more  knowledge  into  our  worship 
than  did  the  ancient  Hebrews,  we  shall  hardly 
be  able  to  put  in  more  reality. 

The  one  supreme  immortal  element  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  faith  in  the  only  true  and  living  God. 
The  one  outstanding  portrait  which  it  paints  is 
that  of  one  ineffable  Face,  before  which  stands 
the  soul  in  joyful  converse  and  immortal  faith. 
The  Old  Testament  postulates  FAITH  as  the 
great  central  fact  of  religion. 

In  short,  the  faith  that  makes  heroes,  gives 
substance  to  things  hoped  for  and  reality  to 
things  as  yet  not  seen;  which  was  illustrated  in 
the  many  Old  Testament  worthies,  who  "through 
faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness, 
obtained  promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions, 
quenched  the  power  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge 
of  the  sword,  from  weakness  were  made  strong, 
waxed  mighty  in  war,  turned  to  flight  armies 
of  ahens"  (Hebs.  11:33,  34).  Such  faith 
in  concrete  form  we  find  inimitably  depicted 
in  countless  Old  Testament  characters.     Surely 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  147 

the  faith  of  such  men  will  live  on  and  on  forever ; 
and  not  only  their  biographies,  but  their  writings 
will  continue  to  be  recognized  by  the  Christian 
Church  as  indeed  ^'profitable  for  teaching,  for 
reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  which  is 
in  righteousness."  So  that  with  Emerson,  we 
may  well  affirm  — 

The  word  unto  the  prophets  spoken 
Was  writ  on  tables  yet  unbroken. 

The  Soil  of  Christianity. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  the  Old  Testament 
must  be  regarded  as  an  essential  part  of  the  Word 
of  God.  It  has  intrinsic  value  of  its  own ;  it  is 
the  interpreter  of  the  New  Testament;  Paul 
recognized  its  eternal  validity;  Jesus  Christ  mag- 
nified it  and  made  it  honorable;  and  every  thor- 
ough Bible  student  recognizes  its  intrinsic  worth. 

To  the  Christian  it  has  perennial  value,  be- 
cause it  supplies  the  soil  out  of  which  Christianity 
has  sprung.  Such  an  one  will  consequently  read 
it  carefully  and  ponder  it ;  he  will  likewise 
assimilate  it,  live  it  and  obey  it;  for  unless  he 
obey  it,  it  will  not  yield  itself  to  him.  There 
is  an  esoteric  element  in  the  Old  Testament; 
spiritual  things  are  spiritually  discerned.  He  will 
read  it  devotionally  as  well  as  study  it  critically. 
Even  the  New  Testament  specialist  must  be  con- 
versant with  it.  In  fact  he  cannot  understand  the 
New  Testament  without  it. 

Moreover,  for  an  appreciation  of  the  full  mes- 


148      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

sage  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  must  be  studied 
in  the  closet,  and  its  promises  tested  in  the  actual 
intercourse  of  daily  life.  The  greatest  care  must 
be  taken  to  catch  its  spiritual  significance.  Such 
an  exercise  demands  time,  but  the  rewards  are 
worthy  of  the  effort.  Of  no  other  book  is  the 
motto  of  the  old  Schoolman  more  appropriate: 
"  We  should  prepare  a  man  for  the  world  by 
taking  him  out  of  the  world  for  a  while,  to  be 
influenced,  not  by  the  spirit  of  the  age,  but  by 
the  spirit  of  the  ages."  The  spirit  of  the  ages 
is  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  none  other  than  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel.  Truth  is  continuous.  "  Divine  revela- 
tion is  all  of  one  piece." 


VI 

?Bftle  fetulrp  tlje  (great  Map  into  Hife'sJ 
"Values; 

HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

Is  the  insistent  demand  for  Bible  study  justi- 
fied? If  it  is,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  see  that 
Bible  study  has  a  broad,  philosophical  basis,  that 
it  is  knit  up  with  the  great  values  of  life,  that 
the  biblical  way  is  the  great  way  into  life's 
values ;  that,  in  fact,  there  is  no  way  so  certain 
to  the  largest  life. 

For  the  age  in  which  we  live,  though  it  is 
not  an  irreligious  age,  is  a  realistic  age,  an  age 
with  a  passion  for  reality,  for  real  life.  The 
feeling  of  our  time  is  rightly  voiced  in  Tennyson's 
lines : 

*T  is  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
More  life  and  fuller  that  I  want." 

The  desire  for  life  is  not  only  the  desire  of  our 
time,  but  is  also  the  point  of  Christ's  own  chal- 
lenge; he  comes  that  men  may  have  life,  and  that 
they  may  have  it  abundantly.  Christianity  has, 
therefore,  no  need  to  shrink  from  this  test.  It 
fully  believes,  as  MacDonald  said,  that  religion 


I50      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

is  life,  and  not  merely  the  food  or  the  medicine 
or  the  adornment  of  life.  And  it  is  so  insistent 
upon  Bible  study  just  because  it  believes  it  to 
be  the  best  of  all  ways  to  the  largest  life.  Is 
religion  life  ?  and  is  Bible  study  such  a  pre-eminent 
way  to  life?  If  it  is  not  so,  we  cannot  afford  it 
the  time  demanded ;  if  it  is  so,  we  need  to  know 
and  to  heed  it. 

Character,  Influence  and  Happiness. 

We  shall  readily  grant,  in  the  first  place,  that 
the  great  values  of  life  —  what  is  really  worth 
while  —  must  involve  the  achievement  of  charac- 
ter, of  influence,  and  of  happiness,  and  no  one 
can  come  into  the  largest  life  without  achievement 
along  all  these  lines.  To  be  what  one  ought,  to 
count  as  one  can,  to  enjoy  what  one  may — this 
is  really  worth  while;  and  any  way  of  Hfe  must 
show  us  the  way  to  these  basic  values. 

For  satisfying  life  looks,  in  the  first  place,  to 
character.  We  may  not  forget  Thomas  Arnold's 
words  to  the  boys  of  Rugby,  ''  The  only  thing 
of  moment  in  life  or  in  man  is  character" ;  or, 
as  another  has  put  it,  ''  The  great  soul  will  be 
strong  to  live  as  well  as  to  think."  No  life  can 
come  to  its  best  into  which  there  have  not  been 
built  mighty  convictions,  mighty  decisions,  and  the 
inspiration  of  great  ideals  and  hopes. 

Nor  can  the  genuine  man  be  satisfied  without 
influence,  without  counting  effectively  for  good 
in  the  fives  of  others.     He  must  demand  from 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  151 

himself  social  efficiency,  must  be  sure  that  he 
can  be  counted  a  part  of  that  leaven  that  is  to 
leaven  the  world's  life,  of  that  "good  seed  "  which 
is  the  children  of  the  Kingdom. 

And  the  man  who  means  really  to  live  has 
a  right  to  expect  a  deep  and  abiding  peace  and 
happiness  that  are  something  more  than  satis- 
faction of  the  senses,  a  happiness  that  can  stand 
four-square  to  all  the  facts  of  life.  In  comparing 
one  of  the  madonnas  of  Correggio  at  the  Dresden 
Gallery  with  the  great  Sistine  madonna  of  Ra- 
phael in  the  same  gallery,  Kedney  says  that  while 
each  is  a  masterpiece  in  its  own  line,  the  loveli- 
ness of  Correggio's  picture  is  that  of  a  domestic 
felicity  which  seems  capable  of  abiding  only  so 
long  as  the  world  is  shut  out  and  its  dark  facts 
forgotten,  while  the  suffused  calm  of  the  Sistine 
madonna  and  child  is  to  be  read  in  the  eyes  of 
both,  that  do  not  forget  the  world,  but  look  out 
with  assurance  into  the  eternities  of  God.  A 
basic  happiness  like  that  must  belong  to  the  man 
who  means  really  to  live.  The  message  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  word  of  good  news,  the  best  that  could 
ever  be  brought  to  needy  men ;  it  means  happiness, 
as  well  as  character  and  influence. 

Association  with  Significant  Lives. 

And  if  one  asks,  in  the  second  place,  what 
the  great  means  to  character,  and  influence,  and 
happiness  are,  there  seems  no  doubt  that  one 
must  answer  —  Personal  association  zvith  signifi- 


152      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE   WORLD  TODAY 

cant  lives,  and  some  sharing  in  their  best  znsion. 
There  are  no  other  means  for  a  moment  compar- 
able with  these  for  the  achievement  of  either 
character,  or  influence,  or  happiness.  Even  Kant, 
abstract  philosopher  as  he  was,  knew  that  the 
great  road  to  character  was  by  the  living  example. 
Fichte  caught  up  the  message  from  Kant  and 
rang  it  out  over  the  heads  of  the  students  of  the 
University  of  Erlangen  in  his  great  addresses  on 
''  The  Vocation  of  Man  "  and  "  The  Nature  of 
the  Scholar,"  with  their  great  conception  of  the 
scholar  as  the  embodiment  of  the  "  Divine  Idea," 
who  must  powerfully  touch  the  lives  of  others. 
And  Carlyle  caught  it  up  from  Fichte  in  his 
"  Sartor  Resartus,"  and  George  Eliot  from  Car- 
lyle; and  perhaps  no  one  has  given  it  finer  ex- 
pression than  she,  when  she  says :  "  Ideas  are 
often  poor  ghosts;  our  sun-filled  eyes  cannot 
discern  them  —  they  pass  athwart  us  in  their 
vapor,  and  cannot  make  themselves  felt.  But 
sometimes  they  are  made  flesh ;  they  breathe 
upon  us  with  warm  breath,  they  touch  us  with 
soft,  responsive  hands,  they  look  at  us  with  sad, 
sincere  eyes,  and  speak  to  us  in  appealing  tones ; 
they  are  clothed  in  a  living  human  soul,  with 
all  its  conflicts,  its  faith,  and  its  love.  Then 
their  presence  is  a  power,  then  they  shake  us 
like  a  passion,  and  we  are  drawn  after  them 
with  gentle  compulsion,  as  flame  is  drawn  to 
flame." 

In  fact,  when  one  stops  to  think  about  it,  one 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  153 

sees  there  are  07ily  two  services  of  supreme  value 
that  it  seems  possible  for  any  man  to  do  for 
another:  he  may  lay  upon  that  other  the  impress 
of  a  high  and  noble  character,  and  he  may  share 
with  him  his  own  best  vision.  Beyond  these  there 
is  no  service  of  supreme  value  that  he  can  render. 
And  these  two  services  are  our  supreme  need 
from  others'  lives,  and  our  own  greatest  task  in 
life.  The  great  road  to  character,  and  influence, 
and  happiness  is  the  contagion  of  great  lives  and 
the  sharing  in  their  visions. 

The  Effective  Witness. 

It  follows,  in  the  third  place,  that  the  greatest 
conceivable  need  for  ourselves  or  for  others  is 
high  and  significant  personalities,  and  the  chance 
of  sharing  in  their  effective  witness  to  those 
great  interests  and  personalities  by  which  they 
live.  And  the  significant  personalities  that  above 
all  else  we  need  are  those  that  are  marked  by 
great  convictions  and  great  decisions,  and  are 
inspired  by  great  ideals  and  hopes.  It  is  the  touch 
of  such  lives  that  we  need  most  of  all;  nothing 
else  can  so  surely  bring  us  into  the  largeness  of 
life.  But  the  degree  in  which  we  can  enter  into 
the  largeness  of  their  vision  will  depend  in  no 
small  part  upon  the  effectiveness  of  their  own 
witness.  And  all  men  need  effective  witness  from 
other  men  as  to  those  values  and  personalities  by 
which  they  live.  What  are  the  qualities  required 
in    such    an    effective    witness?      If   the    service 


154      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

rendered  at  this  point  is  supreme,  as  I  believe  it 
to  be,  it  is  worth  while  to  make  clear  to  ourselves 
exactly  what  the  qualities  of  the  effective  witness 
must  be. 

So  far  as  I  can  see,  they  are  four:  first,  con- 
viction; second,  character  and  judgment  in  the 
sphere  in  which  one  bears  witness ;  third,  disinter- 
ested love ;  and,  fourth,  power  to  put  one's  witness 
home. 

First  of  all,  that  witness  counts  most  with 
us  who  speaks  manifestly  out  of  profound  con- 
viction of  his  own.  This  conviction  of  his  goes 
further  with  us  than  the  very  reasons  that  he 
urges  on  its  behalf. 

And  the  second  quality  of  the  effective  witness 
indicates  how  impossible  it  is  to  separate  power 
in  service  from  power  of  personality.  For,  in 
the  last  analysis,  weighing  testimony  is  weighing 
witnesses,  and  no  man  is  finally  going  to  count 
powerfully  with  us  in  whose  character  we  can- 
not have  confidence,  and  whose  judgment  we 
cannot  trust.  A  few  words  from  the  man  of 
character  and  judgment  will  go  further  than 
much  eloquence  from  a  man  in  whose  character 
we  do  not  believe,  and  whose  judgment  we  do 
not  trust. 

And  the  effective  witness,  in  the  third  place, 
must  speak  with  evident  disinterestedness.  It 
must  be  plain  that  he  has  no  merely  private  in- 
terest to  serve,  no  selfish  scheme  of  his  own  to 
further,    but   that    in   the   witness   he   bears    he 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  155 

genuinely  seeks  the  good  of  those  to  whom  he 
speaks.  Back  of  all  witness  of  words,  thus,  must 
lie,  above  all,  the  witness  of  the  life  of  convic- 
tion, of  character  and  judgment,  of  disinterested 
love. 

And  the  witness  of  such  men  cannot  well  fail, 
though  their  power  of  speech  is  small  indeed. 
And  yet,  the  fourth  element  of  the  effective  wit- 
ness is  not  without  importance.  A  man  may 
add  greatly  to  his  effectiveness  for  good  because 
he  has  power  to  put  his  witness  home.  And 
that,  it  may  perhaps  be  said,  means  exactly  three 
things  —  power  to  make  his  testimony  to  the 
cause  or  person  or  interest  of  which  he  speaks 
real,  rational,  and  vital. 

It  sometimes  seems  to  me  that  the  Christian 
witness  particularly  needs  to  have  these  three 
demands  continually  in  mind.  It  is  his  business, 
above  all,  to  make  Christ  and  the  things  of  the 
spirit  real  to  men,  able  to  take  their  place  among 
the  steadfast  realities  of  their  life;  rational,  with 
steadfast  appeal  to  their  best  reason,  knit  up  with 
the  very  best  thinking  that  they  are  able  to  do 
in  any  line;  and  vital,  drawn  from  life,  with 
motives  for  life,  translatable  continuously  into 
life. 

These,  then,  it  seems  to  me,  are  our  greatest 
needs :  the  contagion  of  high  and  significant  per- 
sonalities —  that  is,  personalities  characterized 
by  great  convictions,  decisions,  ideals,  and  hopes 
—  and  the  opportunity  of  sharing  in  their  effec- 


156       THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

tive  witness,  a  witness  that  grows  out  of  con- 
viction, character  and  judgment,  and  disinter- 
ested love,  and  that  is  so  brought  home  as  to  be 
made  to  us  real,  rational,  and  vital.  It  is  no 
accident,  therefore,  that  the  program  of  Chris- 
tianity should  be,  as  my  colleague.  Professor 
Bosworth,  has  said,  the  conquest  of  the  world  by 
a  campaign  of  testimony,  through  empowered 
witnesses.  For  this  is  the  way  by  which  we  come 
into  all  the  great  values  of  life.  It  could  not 
fail  to  be  the  way  into  the  supreme  values  of 
life,  brought  by  the  highest  of  all  religions. 

Personality  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

Just  here,  then,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to  be  found 
the  basic  reason  for  the  pre-eminent  importance 
of  Bible  study.  The  great  mission  and  priceless 
value  of  the  Bible  are  that  it  puts  us  in  touch 
with  the  most  significant  lives  of  the  world,  in 
the  greatest  realm,  that  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
—  the  lives  that  we  need  most  of  all,  because 
religion  is  the  great  unlocker  of  the  powers  of 
men.  Here,  thus,  in  the  Bible,  we  have  the 
opportunity  of  staying  in  the  presence  of  the 
best.  If  Kaftan  was  right  in  saying  that  our 
chief  task  is  to  enter  with  appreciative  under- 
standing into  the  great  personalities  of  history, 
then  our  greatest  task  is  to  be  able  so  to  enter 
into  the  lives  embodied  in  this  record  of  revela- 
tion. The  Bible  has,  in  other  words,  a  supreme 
place  just  because  it  does  put  us  in  touch  with 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  157 

the  most  significant  personalities  of  history  — 
the  great  Hne  of  the  prophets,  cuhninating  in 
Christ;  and  because  it  contains  the  most  effective 
witness  to  moral  and  spiritual  values  that  the 
world  knows. 

Where  else  shall  one  turn  to  find  a  line  of 
personalities  so  grounded  in  the  greatest  con- 
victions that  men  can  have,  so  embodying  the 
mighty  decisions  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life, 
so  moved  by  the  highest  ideals  and  inspired  with 
the  largest  hopes?  Here  lies  the  inestimable 
value  of  the  modern  historical  study  of  the  Bible. 
For  it  enables  us,  as  never  before,  to  enter  with 
intelligent  sympathy  into  the  personal  lives  of 
the  Bible  record,  to  find  them  living  persons. 
To  a  degree  true  of  no  preceding  generation, 
this  generation  is  able  to  enter  into  the  actual 
situation,  for  example,  of  the  prophets,  to  see 
their  problem,  their  life  task,  and  the  message 
that  it  was  given  them  to  utter;  and  their  great- 
ness so  comes  home  to  us  as  never  before.  So 
the  free  critic  Cornill  can  say  of  Amos,  "  Amos 
is  one  of  the  most  marvelous  and  incomprehen- 
sible figures  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind, 
the  pioneer  of  a  process  of  evolution  from  which 
a  new  epoch  of  humanity  dates."  And  Hosea 
he  counts  "  among  the  greatest  religious  geniuses 
which  the  world  has  ever  produced  " ;  and  he  says 
of  Isaiah,  "  In  Isaiah  we  find  for  the  first  time  a 
clearly  grasped  conception  of  universal  history." 
It  is  into  the  presence  of  such  personalities  that 


158      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  modern  historical  study  of  the  Bible  intro- 
duces us.  To  a  degree  never  before  true,  the 
Bible  lives  for  us ;  of  it  we  may  well  use  Lowell's 
phrase,  and  say  that  it  is  "  rammed  with  Hfe." 
One  cannot  put  the  point  of  a  needle  into  it 
anywhere  without  drawing  blood. 

Where  else,  too,  shall  one  turn  for  such  effective 
witness  to  moral  and  spiritual  values?  Where 
else  are  the  personalities  to  be  found  who  speak 
as  those  who  have  seen  the  verities  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  world,  whose  message  comes  out 
of  such  conviction,  such  character  and  judgment, 
with  such  manifest  disinterestedness  of  love? 
Who  else  have  power  to  make  the  things  of  the 
spirit  so  real,  so  rational,  so  vital?  These  per- 
sonalities of  the  Scripture  are  truly  the  moral 
and  religious  leaders  of  the  race. 

As  the  record  of  the  pre-eminent  meetings  of 
the  men  of  the  ancient  time  with  God,  even  the 
Old  Testament  gives  us  what  else  we  could  not 
have,  a  genetic  understanding  of  Christianity, 
and  the  transcript  of  our  own  individual  experi- 
ence writ  large.  This  generation  can  least  of 
all  spare  the  Old  Testament ;  for  college  students 
are  studying  almost  every  subject  they  take  up 
by  the  biological  method.  The  great  concept  of 
evolution  in  its  larger  sense  is  a  dominant  one, 
and  the  students  of  our  time  are  trying  to  under- 
stand their  subjects  genetically.  It  would  hardly 
be  possible  to  satisfy  this  generation  without  such 
a  genetic  undertanding  of  Christianity,  and  that 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  159 

genetic  understanding  requires  a  study  of  the 
Old  Testament.  So  strongly  do  we  feel  this  that 
the  modern  man  would  be  almost  tempted  to 
reproduce  out  of  his  imagination  the  record  of 
such  a  preceding  growth,  if  we  did  not  have  it 
in  the  Old  Testament.  In  the  same  way  we  are 
trying  to  understand  our  individual  lives  in  the 
light  of  the  record  of  the  race ;  and  in  this  aspect, 
too,  the  Old  Testament  has  for  us  profound  sig- 
nificance as  a  record  of  a  race-experience,  like 
that  experience  through  whose  stages  we  our- 
selves must  largely  pass.  In  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  alike  we  have  the  opportunity,  too,  of 
sharing  in  no  small  measure  in  the  best  insights 
of  the  greatest  spiritual  seers  that  the  world  has 
known. 

The  Presence  of  Christ. 

But  above  all,  in  the  New  Testament,  the  Bible 
brings  us  back  into  the  concrete  presence  of  the 
historical  Christ,  and  to  the  sense  of  His  practical 
lordship.  No  generation  the  world  has  ever  seen 
has  witnessed  such  study  of  His  life  as  has  this 
generation  of  ours.  It  is  not  an  accident  that 
every  life  of  Christ  worth  reading,  outside  the 
Gospels,  has  been  written  since  the  year  1835. 
To  our  time,  too,  belongs  the  whole  rise  of  the 
great  science  of  biblical  theology,  to  our  time  the 
most  searching  studies  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Men  have  been  brought  face  to  face  with  the  life 
and  spirit  and  teaching  of  Jesus  as  never  before, 


l6o      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

and  it  is  a  reasonable  thing  to  expect  the  best 
Christian  preaching  and  the  best  Christian  living 
the  world  has  ever  seen  to  be  just  ahead  of  us, 
not  behind  us.  For,  in  spite  of  all  the  questions 
that  are  raised,  the  practical  lordship  of  Christ 
is  becoming  daily  more  manifest ;  never  before  did 
His  spirit  rule  so  truly  in  industry,  in  commerce, 
in  politics  national  and  international.  And  while 
we  are  still  only  at  the  beginning  of  that  complete 
lordship  that  belongs  to  Him,  we  have  the  greatest 
reasons  for  faith  and  hope.  And  it  is  through 
the  witness  of  these  earliest  disciples,  who  *'  be- 
held His  glory,"  that  there  is  given  to  us  this 
priceless  vision  "  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." 

The    Pre-eminent    Need    of    the    Twentieth 
Century. 

And  it  especially  concerns  us  men  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  to  remember  that  it  is  exactly  we 
who,  above  all,  need  Christ  for  any  sure  way  to 
God.  For  this  generation  has  awakened  to  scien- 
tific and  moral  self-consciousness  to  an  extent 
never  before  true.  Just  because  there  is  this 
scientific  consciousness  on  the  one  hand,  and  this 
deeper  moral  consciousness  on  the  other,  many 
of  the  older  ways  into  the  religious  life  are  for 
us  closed.  I  do  not  say  that  the  New  Hollander 
or  the  African  has  had  no  genuine  religious  ex- 
perience. I  do  not  say  that  any  race  has  been 
without  some  genuine  relation  to  God.     But  I 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  i6i 

do  say  that  for  us  men  of  the  twentieth  century 
the  ways  by  which  most  of  them  came  into  their 
religious  experience  are  for  us  closed  ways.  The 
facts  that  were  sufficient  for  them  are  not  suffi- 
cient for  us.  If  we  are  to  find  our  way  into 
assured  personal  relation  to  God,  it  must  be  by 
way  of  a  person  able  to  call  out  absolute  trust. 
For,  in  Herrmann's  language,  "  the  childlike 
spirit  can  only  arise  within  us  when  our  ex- 
perience is  the  same  as  a  child's ;  in  other  words, 
when  we  meet  with  a  personal  life  which  compels 
us  to  trust  it  without  reserve.  Only  the  person 
of  Jesus  can  arouse  such  trust  in  a  man  who  has 
awakened  to  moral  self -consciousness.  If  such  a 
man  surrenders  himself  to  anything  or  any  one 
else,  he  throws  away  not  only  his  trust  but  him- 
self." We  need  for  assured  relation  to  God 
a  fact  so  great  that  in  it  we  can  unmistakably 
find  God,  and  He  find  us  —  a  fact  great  enough 
to  bring  us  renewed  conviction  of  the  certainty 
of  moral  ideals,  of  the  spiritual  world,  of  the 
living  God.  And  it  is  this  conviction  that  the 
personality  of  Jesus  is  able  to  bring  us,  with  a 
certainty  and  strength  that  no  other  fact  or  per- 
son can  approach ;  so  that  we  can  say  with 
Harnack,  '*  When  God  and  everything  that  is 
sacred  threaten  to  disappear  in  darkness,  or  our 
doom  is  pronounced;  when  the  mighty  forces  of 
inexorable  nature  seem  to  overwhelm  us,  and  the 
bounds  of  good  and  evil  to  dissolve;  when,  weak 
and  weary,  we  despair  of  finding  God  at  all  in 


l62      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

this  dismal  world  —  it  is  then  that  the  personality 
of  Christ  may  save  us." 

To  Stay  in  His  Presence. 

The  man  of  the  modern  age,  thus,  needs  Christ 
in  pre-eminent  degree.  But  we  are  put  face  to 
face  with  the  personahty  of  Jesus  only  through 
the  New  Testament  as  the  witness  of  His  first 
disciples.  The  greatest  of  all  our  tasks,  therefore, 
becomes  at  the  same  time  our  supreme  opportunity 
—  to  stay  in  His  presence,  and  to  let  Him  make 
His  legitimate  impression  upon  us.  All  values  of 
every  kind  go  back  ultimately  to  the  riches  of 
some  personal  life,  and  there  are  no  riches  like 
those  of  the  world's  greatest  personalities ;  above 
all,  like  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. 

Then  stand  before  that  fact,  that  Life  and  Death, 
Stay  there  at  gaze,  till  it  dispart,  dispread, 
As  tho'  a  star  should  open  out,  all  sides. 
Grow  the  world  on  you,  as  it  is  my  world. 

The  Bible  thus  becomes  our  great  way  to 
character  and  influence  and  happiness.  In  touch 
with  its  great  personalities,  we  are  quickened  into 
life,  as  we  feel  the  impress  of  their  character 
and  share  their  witness.  In  such  study,  too,  the 
qualities  of  effective  witness  are  produced  and 
deepened  in  us.  It  is  thus  that  we  come  into 
life ;  for  it  is  literally  true  to  say  of  many  a  man 
who  feels  deeply  the  modern  spirit  and  yet  who 
has  stayed  persistently  in  the  presence  of  Christ, 
that  in  all  the  higher  ranges  of  his  life  he  lives 


THE  WAY  INTO  LIFE'S  VALUES  163 

by   Christ;    all   the   sources   of   his   life   are   in 
Christ. 

In  such  considerations  as  these  lies  the  great 
reason  for  Bible  study,  for  insistence  on  such 
study,  as  the  supreme  way  into  life's  values. 


VII 

Wi'bv  fefjoulb  €berj>  goung  iWan  3Reab  anb 
^tubp  tfje  JSitile? 

JAMES   McCONAUGHY 

My  message  is  to  the  young  man  of  today; 
to  one  and  all  in  town  or  country.  Nor  do  I 
forget  the  boys,  who  are  soon  to  be  young  men. 
Let  me  tell  you  a  conviction  that  has  grown  out 
of  twenty  years'  experience,  and  let  me  give  you 
some  of  the  reasons  for  it. 

Every  young  man  who  reads  at  all  should  regu- 
larly give  to  the  Bible  the  highest  place  in  his 
reading.  Further,  he  cannot  read  it  intelligently 
and  with  appreciation  until  he  gives  to  it  —  and 
the  earlier  in  life  he  begins  the  better  —  some 
faithful  and  systematic  study.  As  well  expect 
to  become  a  skilled  typewriter  by  occasionally 
drumming  on  the  keyboard  or  a  leading  athlete 
by  cheering  from  the  "  bleachers  "  as  expect  to 
appreciate  and  profit  by  the  masterpiece  of  the 
world's  literature  by  keeping  a  copy  of  it  on  your 
bookshelf.  You  hear  it  preached  from  by  your 
favorite  minister,  or  perhaps  you  listen  while  your 
Sunday-school  teacher  talks  to  you  about  it.  Good 


l66      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

as  far  as  it  goes,  but  is  it  farther  than  the  visitors' 
gallery?  Why  not  come  down  on  to  the  floor, 
be  a  worker,  not  a  spectator? 

It  costs  something,  you  say;  takes  time,  re- 
quires you  to  give  up  other  pleasures,  other  en- 
gagements. Granted.  Let  me  show  you  that 
it  returns  a  hundred- fold ;  that  you  must  take 
time  for  it  if  you  are  to  do  well  the  work  of  life ; 
that,  pursued  heartily  and  faithfully,  it  will  prove 
re-creation  indeed,  and  send  you  into  the  day's 
work  with  a  glow  of  spirit  finer  than  any  glow 
of  body  that  follows  a  run,  a  dip  and  a  rub- 
down. 

I 

To  start  with,  what  do  you  read  or  study? 
Next  to  your  associates,  what  you  read  determines 
what  you  are. 

The  Bible  and  the  Newspaper. 

Many  of  you,  if  frank,  will  answer,  "  Little 
or  nothing  except  the  daily  newspaper." 

It  is  cheap  —  at  least  until  you  multiply  the 
price  by  the  number  you  buy  in  a  year.  It  does 
not  require  any  great  mental  effort.  What  effect 
does  it  have  on  your  mind?  on  your  tastes?  on 
your  character?  But  one  must  know  what  is 
going  on,  you  say.  Everything?  How  much  of 
what  you  read  yesterday  do  you  remember  ?  How 
much  has  left  you  any  wiser  or  better?  How 
much  had  you  better  never  have  read?     Would 


WHY  READ  AND  STUDY  THE  BIBLE         167 

you  be  a  strong  man,  with  a  mind  that  thinks 
and  a  character  that  weighs?  If  so,  you  must 
be  master  of  your  reading,  not  let  it  master  you. 
Read  your  daily,  but  (i)  select  the  cleanest  and 
ablest.  Boycott  the  journalism  which  is  well 
called  "  yellow,"  for  it  has  in  it  neither  blood  nor 
purity.  In  the  best  of  dailies  there  will  be  more 
to  skip  than  to  read,  so  (2)  read  the  headlines, 
and  beyond  that  what  is  really  worth  reading. 
Keep  abreast  of  the  movements  in  your  own  com- 
munity toward  social  improvement  and  civic 
righteousness ;  of  the  affairs  of  nations  which 
affect  our  own  national  welfare  and  the  prog- 
ress of  God's  Kingdom  throughout  the  earth. 
Skip  personalities,  scandal,  crimes,  gossip,  every- 
thing that  leaves  the  trail  of  the  serpent  on  your 
brain. 

Hold  yourself  to  such  a  course,  and  who  of 
you  will  not  gain  some  time  daily  for  the  read- 
ing of  literature  that  is  more  worth  while  because 
less  transient? 

Do  you  read  a  newspaper  that  boasts  of  its 
circulation  ?  The  Bible  has  circulated  250,000,000 
copies  and  every  year  shows  an  increase  on  the 
preceding.  Does  your  paper  proclaim  its  enter- 
prise and  claim  readers  in  distant  towns?  The 
Bible  belts  the  globe.  The  whole  or  parts  of  it 
may  be  read  in  380  different  languages  and  dia- 
lects, and  120  of  these  were  but  spoken  tongues 
until  the  Bible  came,  in  the  vanguard  of  civiliza- 
tion,  to   call   into   existence   an   alphabet   and   a 


1 68      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

literature.  To  two-thirds  of  the  human  race  the 
Bible  is  now  accessible  in  the  native  tongue. 

Does  your  paper  report  the  words  and  acts  of 
the  great  men  of  our  day?  Make  the  closer  ac- 
quaintance of  "  the  great  strong  beings  like  Moses, 
and  David,  and  Isaiah,  and  Daniel,  and  Paul,  and 
John,  and  Peter,  who,"  as  Phillips  Brooks  has 
said,  "  stand  forth  as  manifestations  of  that  vital 
power  with  which  the  Bible  is  filled  from  end 
to  end." 

Have  you  thought  the  Bible  stale,  an  antique, 
a  "  back  number  "  ?  No  book  in  the  world  is 
as  much  alive  today.  The  Nestor  of  American 
journalism  himself,  Charles  A.  Dana,  of  the  Nezv 
York  Sim,  speaking  to  Cornell  students,  referred 
to  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  Bible  as  a 
pre-eminent  qualification  for  success  in  jour- 
nalism. 

Do  you  seek  in  the  papers  for  information 
that  will  lead  to  success  in  business?  The  editor 
of  another  New  York  paper  was  asked  by  a  corre- 
spondent to  name  a  few  of  the  best  books  for 
a  young  man  in  business.  This  was  his  reply: 
"  The  best  single  treatise  is  the  New  Testament ; 
next  to  this  is  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon.  The  best 
business  man  we  have  ever  known  memorized  the 
entire  book  of  Proverbs  at  twenty-two,  carrying 
a  ten-cent  edition  in  his  pocket  and  committing 
half  a  dozen  verses  daily.  When  he  became  an 
employer  he  gave  a  copy  to  every  employee, 
recommending  it  as  an  admirable  business  guide.'* 


WHY  READ   AND   STUDY  THE  BIBLE  169 

Now  Proverbs  is  neither  the  kernel  nor  the 
crown  of  the  Bible.  Isaiah,  and  John,  and  Paul, 
and  above  all  Jesus  Himself,  were  wiser  and 
greater  than  Solomon.  There  are  higher  con- 
siderations to  incite  to  Bible  study  than  these 
utilitarian  ones;  but  are  not  these  sufficient  to 
show  that  no  young  man  in  our  day  can  neglect 
the  Bible  without  serious  loss  to  himself? 


The  Bible  and  the  Magazine. 

Next  to  the  newspaper  in  its  hold  upon  the 
reading  public  of  today  is  the  weekly  or  monthly 
periodical.  Not  a  few  of  these  circulate  from 
one  to  five  hundred  thousand  copies  of  each  issue. 
Here  again  the  word  is  discriminate.  Decide 
how  much  time  you  have  for  such  reading  and 
how  it  can  best  be  spent.  Exclude  ( i )  those  that 
are  positively  harmful  —  when  you  have  once 
seen  a  picture  or  read  a  line  that  soils  your  brain, 
forever  after  let  that  periodical  alone;  (2)  those 
that  simply  waste  your  time  —  the  name  of  these 
is  legion. 

To  appreciate  and  digest  those  that  remain  a 
good  knowledge  of  the  Bible  is  invaluable.  In 
the  Young  Men's  Era  for  March  3,  1892,  Mr. 
Wm.  D.  Murray  told  how  he  was  impressed,  in 
reading  one  of  the  popular  magazines,  with  the 
frequent  recurrence,  in  secular  articles,  of  Bible 
phraseology,  or  quotation,  or  reference.  On 
counting  he  found  in  that  single  number  forty- 


170        THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

nine  direct  quotations  from  or  references  to  nine- 
teen different  books  of  the  Bible. 

One  of  the  best  magazine  writers  of  his  day, 
Charles  Dudley  Warner,  had  this  to  say  in  the 
Editor's  Study  of  Harper's  Monthly:  "A  fair 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  is  in  itself  almost  a  liberal 
education,  as  many  great  masters  in  literature 
have  testified.  It  has  so  entered  into  law,  litera- 
ture, thought,  the  whole  modern  life  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  that  ignorance  of  it  is  a  most  serious 
disadvantage  to  the  student."  To  the  neglect  of 
Bible  study  he  traces  the  prevalent  moral  laxity 
and  the  political  corruption  of  our  day. 


The  Bible  and  Other  Literature. 

So  in  reading  books,  the  book  to  read  above 
all  others  is  the  Book  that  lives  above  all  others. 
The  Bible  in  Latin  was  the  first  book  to  be 
printed  with  movable  type.  The  English  Bible 
is  our  greatest  English  classic,  and  all  that  is 
best  in  our  literature  is  permeated  by  its  style 
and  thought.  To  its  influence  on  our  best  prose 
Professor  Cook  of  Yale  brings  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses in  his  little  book  on  "  The  Bible  and  Eng- 
lish Prose  Style."  When  he  crowns  his  illus- 
trations with  an  extract  from  Lincoln's  second 
inaugural,  it  is  well  for  the  young  man  of  today 
who  has  free  access  to  public  libraries  to  know 
that  Lincoln's  library  in  his  log-cabin  home  con- 
sisted of  four  books  —  the  Bible,  Bunyan's  Pil- 


WHY  READ  AND  STUDY  THE  BIBLE         171 

grim's  Progress,  Burns's  Poems,  and  Weems' 
Life  of  Washington. 

Its  influence  on  our  poets  has  been  even  greater. 
It  was  Shakespeare  who  wrote  of 

those  holy  fields  '  ' 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which  fourteen  hundred  years  ago  were  nailed 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross,    1 

and  essays  have  been  written  to  show  how  much 
he  is  indebted  to  the  Scriptures. 

Who  that  has  learned  to  love  Browning  at  all 
does  not  know  something  of  the  faith  that  breathes 
in  his  "  Saul,"  "  A  Death  in  the  Desert,"  "  Pros- 
pice,"  or  ''Rabbi  Ben  Ezra"?  Blot  out  the 
Bible's  influence  from  Whittier,  Longfellow, 
Lowell,  and  what  would  remain?  From  Tenny- 
son van  Dyke  has  gathered  page  after  page  of 
selections  alluding  to  scriptural  scenes  or  truths 
and  published  them  in  an  appendix  to  his  "  Poetry 
of  Tennyson." 

The  Independent,  of  November  8,  1894,  pub- 
lished an  article  from  "  a  college  president,"  de- 
scribing the  results  of  a  test  made  with  a  score  of 
the  most  familiar  of  these  on  an  entering  Fresh- 
man class.  More  than  half  were  entirely  ignorant 
of  "  Ruth  amid  the  fields  of  corn,"  ''  Pharaoh's 
darkness,"  "  Joshua's  moon  in  Ajalon,"  "  the 
strange  angel  which  of  old  wrestled  with  wander- 
ing Israel,"  "  Jonah's  gourd,"  "  Arimathean  Jo- 
seph," and  even  of  *'  the  deathless  angel  seated  in 


172      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  vacant  tomb."  How  much  better  could  you 
have  done?  This  college  president  located  the 
cause  of  this  ignorance  in  the  fact  that  "  the  Bible 
has  become  buried  beneath  a  landslide  of  books 
and  periodicals.  People  read  far  more  than  of 
old;   but  they  read  the  Bible  far  less." 

If  this  indictment  convicts  you,  face  the  situ- 
ation and  change  it.  Give  the  Bible  the  first  plape 
in  your  reading. 

The  Bible  and  Other  Branches  of  Study. 

The  Bible  is  not  only  the  crown  of  literature; 
it  is  the  science  of  sciences,  the  core  of  knowledge. 

Says  Professor  Bowen  in  "  A  Layman's  Study 
of  the  English  Bible  " :  "  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments have  exerted  more  influence,  whether  for 
weal  or  woe,  on  the  course  of  human  affairs 
among  civilized  nations  than  all  other  books  put 
together.  Their  imprint  is  on  most  of  the  litera- 
ture, the  philosophy,  the  legislation  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  last  seventeen  hundred  years." 

Finney's  biographer  tells  us  that,  in  trying  to 
master  Blackstone's  Commentaries  and  other  law 
books,  he  found  constant  reference  made  to  the 
Mosaic  institutions,  as  if  it  were  acknowledged 
by  jurists  that  there  the  foundation  of  all  law, 
as  of  all  morality,  was  to  be  found.  So  the 
lawyer's  clerk,  who  had  already  decided  that 
there  was  nothing  in  Christianity  for  him,  bought 
a  Bible  and  began  to  read  it  from  cover  to  cover. 


WHY  READ  AND   STUDY  THE  BIBLE         173 

It  spoiled  him  for  the  law  but  made  him  one  of 
the  greatest  spiritual  leaders  of  his  generation. 

Ruskin,  the  great  art  critic,  in  his  autobi- 
ography, tells  how  his  mother  "  established  his 
soul  in  life  "  by  making  him  not  merely  read  but 
commit  large  portions  of  the  Bible.  He  prints 
the  lists  of  chapters  which  he  thus  learned  and 
testifies : ''  To  that  discipline,  patient,  accurate  and 
resolute,  I  owe  much  of  my  general  power  of 
taking  pains,  and  the  best  part  of  my  taste  in 
literature.  I  count  it,  very  confidently,  the  most 
precious,  and,  on  the  whole,  the  one  essential 
part  of  my  education." 

Prof.  W.  H.  Thomson,  M.D.,  held  for  many 
years  in  New  York  city  a  unique  position  of 
influence.  A  high  authority  in  medical  science, 
he  taught  each  Sunday  a  Bible  class  composed 
of  hundreds  of  intelligent  men  and  women.  In 
an  address  he  once  said :  "  The  reason  for  this 
impossibility  of  exhausting  the  Bible,  so  that  it 
can  be  once  and  for  all  disposed  of,  is  simply 
because  somehow  it  touches  every  conceivable 
point  of  human  history,  experience  and  investi-, 
gation  so  singularly  that,  for  example,  the  geolo- 
gist, the  philologist,  the  ethnologist,  the  historian, 
the  literary  critic,  the  philosopher,  as  well  as  the 
man  in  every  department  of  life,  finds  in  it  what 
seems  to  concern  himself  very  particularly." 

Whatever  else  you  study,  therefore,  do  not 
neglect  the  Bible.     Find  in  it  what  concerns  you. 

"  Give  diligence  "  to  its  "  handling,"  as  Paul 


174      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

exhorted  Timothy  to  do,  and  you  will  find  it  not 
only  an  awakener  of  thought,  a  cultivator  of  taste, 
a  guide  to  truth,  but  a  fountain  of  life,  as  did 
Finney,  and  as  does  every  man  who  comes  to 
it  with  an  open  mind  and  an  earnest  and  teach- 
able spirit. 

The  Bible  and  Other  Religious  Books. 

Bible  study  in  earnest,  pursued  with  system 
and  prayer,  removes  weakness  from  Christian 
life  and  service.  Are  you  unaccustomed  to  study 
of  any  sort,  absorbed  only  in  life's  routine?  Stir 
up  the  gifts,  both  mental  and  physical,  that  are 
in  you,  and  concentrate  them  on  the  Bible.  On 
the  Bible  itself,  more  than  on  books  written  about 
it  or  drawn  from  it. 

Even  devotional  books,  intended  as  helps,  may 
be  so  used  as  to  crowd  out  the  Bible.  Phillips 
Brooks  well  said,  "  Religious  people  read  thin, 
superficial  books  of  religious  sentiment,  but  do 
not  meet  face  to  face  the  strong,  exacting,  mas- 
culine pages  of  their  Bibles." 

Do  not  his  adjectives  explain  the  reason  for 
his  statement?  The  Bible  is  never  superficial, 
never  thin.  Simple  indeed  in  great  part  it  is,  so 
that  even  a  child  or  a  plantation  negro  may  de- 
light in  it,  but  always  profound.  "  In  this  book," 
said  Ewald,  the  great  historian,  to  Dean  Stanley, 
"  is  all  the  wisdom  of  the  world."  Why  be  satis- 
fied with  water- jug  or  bottle  when  the  spring  itself 
is  at  hand?    The  Bible  is  exacting,  too.     It  de- 


WHY  READ   AND   STUDY  THE  BIBLE  175 

man-ds  your  best,  of  thought,  prayer,  love,  obedi- 
ence. Give  it  its  due  and  it  will  repay  you  a 
hundred-fold. 

It  was  often  said  of  men  like  Moody  or  Spur- 
geon,  "  He  is  a  man  of  one  book."  What  does 
it  mean  ?  Mr.  Moody's  study  is  lined  with  books. 
One  of  Mr.  Spurgeon's  biographers  tells  us  that 
during  a  part  of  his  life  he  read  two  new  books 
a  day.  That  could  not  mean  careful  reading  of 
every  page,  but  he  had  learned  by  much  practice 
how  to  rapidly  extract  the  juice  as  he  would 
squeeze  an  orange.  Yet  it  was  Spurgeon  that 
said,  "  I  would  like  to  see  a  huge  pile  of  all  the 
books,  good  and  bad,  that  were  ever  written, 
prayer-books  and  sermons,  and  hymn-books,  and 
all,  smoking  like  Sodom  of  old,  if  the  reading  of 
these  books  keeps  you  away  from  the  reading  of 
the  Bible;  for  a  ton  weight  of  human  literature 
is  not  worth  an  ounce  of  Scripture,  one  single 
drop  of  the  essential  tincture  of  the  Word  of 
God  is  better  than  a  sea  full  of  our  commentings 
and  sermonizings,  and  the  like." 

Let  the  simple  test  for  all  our  reading  then 
be  this :  "  Is  this  paper,  this  article,  this  book 
better  fitting  me  to  appreciate  and  understand 
the  Bible,  or  am  I  letting  it  take  the  Bible's 
place?" 

The  current  page  that  tells  of  the  world's 
progress,  or  of  its  misery  and  need,  should  lead 
back  with  whetted  appetite  to  the  pages  that 
tell  of  God's  plans  for  the  world  and  of  God's 


176      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

supplies  for  human  need;  the  most  abstract 
mathematics  or  logic  should  develop  the  accurate 
thinking  that  better  grasps  Bible  truth ;  the  ob- 
servation of  nature  and  her  wonders  should  lead 
reverently  to  the  greater  wonders  of  revelation; 
faithful  portraiture  of  human  life  and  conduct 
should  lead  back  to  the  one  book  which  best 
describes  men  both  as  they  are  and  as  God  means 
them  to  be.  Do  they  do  so  in  your  case?  If  not, 
your  use  of  them  must  be  misuse. 

It  is  related  of  Alexander  Duff,  the  great  mis- 
sionary to  India,  who  spent  his  last  years  in 
teaching  theology  in  New  College,  Edinburgh, 
that  he  loved  to  tell  his  students  this  story  of  his 
outward  voyage  to  India.  He  was  a  great  lover 
of  the  classics,  and  took  special  delight  in  the 
library  of  carefully  selected  volumes  which 
friends  had  furnished  as  a  part  of  his  missionary 
outfit.  In  rounding  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  the 
vessel  was  wrecked  and  nearly  everything  on 
board  lost.  As  the  passengers  gathered  about  a 
fire  on  the  beach  a  sailor  brought  to  Dr.  Duff 
a  book  which  had  been  washed  ashore,  and  asked 
him  if  it  was  his.  It  proved  to  be  his  Bible, 
wrinkled  and  discolored  by  sea  water,  but  still 
legible.  He  took  it  as  an  omen  from  Heaven, 
and  from  that  hour,  though  always  a  leader  in 
education,  he  made  the  Bible  central  in  his 
thought  and  study  and  teaching. 


WHY  READ  AND  STUDY  THE  BIBLE         177 

The  Bible  and  Character. 

The  Bible  is  the  one  book  that  contains  the 
message  which  transforms  Hfe,  whether  in  Scot- 
land or  India,  America  or  the  heart  of  Africa. 
A  Scotch  boy,  nine  years  old,  won  the  prize  his 
pastor  had  offered  by  repeating  from  memory 
the  whole  119th  Psalm  ''with  only  five  hitches." 
David  Livingstone,  scientist,  explorer,  mission- 
ary, carried  the  New  Testament  he  thus  won 
across  Africa  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  so  hid 
its  truths  in  his  heart  and  exemplified  them  in 
his  dealings  with  native  tribes  that  when  Stanley 
followed  on  his  track  their  dark  faces  lit  up  at 
mention  of  his  name.  The  American  newspaper 
correspondent,  in  the  weeks  he  spent  with  Living- 
stone on  Lake  Tanganyika  and  its  shores,  got  a 
new  vision  of  the  Christ  in  the  face  of  His  herald 
to  Africa,  of  whom  he  wrote :  "  In  him  religion 
exhibits  its  loveliest  features ;  it  governs  his  con- 
duct not  only  toward  his  servants,  but  toward 
the  natives,  the  bigoted  Mahometans,  and  all  who 
come  in  contact  with  him." 

When  Stanley  went  to  Africa  the  second  time 
he  carried  with  him  a  beautifully  bound  Bible, 
the  gift  to  him  of  Livingstone's  sister.  When  he 
visited  Uganda  he  read  from  it  to  its  king,  Mtesa. 
When  he  had  gone  two  hundred  miles  farther  a 
messenger  reached  him,  crying  out  that  Mtesa 
wanted  the  book,  and  it  was  sent  to  him.  A  few 
years  later,  when,  by  the  labors  of  Mackay  and 
other  missionaries,  a  written  language  had  been 


178       THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

created  in  Uganda,  and  the  New  Testament  trans- 
lated and  printed  in  it,  Uganda  Christians,  who 
a  dozen  years  before  had  never  heard  of  the  true 
God  and  Jesus  Christ,  gladly  paid  the  wages  of 
three  months'  hard  labor  to  own  a  copy  of  it. 
These  same  Christians  have  proved  their  faith 
"  at  the  stake,  under  the  knobstick,  and  under 
torture  unto  death." 

They  were  the  stuff  that  martyrs  are  made  of, 
but  it  takes  the  Bible  to  make  such  martyrs.  Well 
did  Professor  Drummond  say  that  what  we  need, 
whether  in  Scotland  or  in  America,  today,  is 
"  not  more  men,  but  more  man."  It  is  Gladstone, 
who  was  guided  throughout  the  greatest  career 
of  this  century  by  the  principles  of  the  Bible, 
than  whom,  we  are  told,  no  man  of  his  day  at 
Oxford  read  his  Bible  more  or  knew  it  better, 
who  testifies  from  the  ripe  experience  of  his  old 
age,  "  My  only  hope  for  the  world  is  in  bring- 
ing the  human  mind  into  contact  with  divine 
revelation." 

The  attempt  to  build  character  without  the 
Bible  is  doomed  to  failure.  President  G.  Stanley 
Hall  of  Clark  University,  in  addressing  the  Con- 
necticut Valley  Congregational  Club  on  "  The 
Teaching  of  Morals,"  referred  to  a  collection  he 
had  made  of  more  than  three  hundred  different 
text-books  used  in  schools  and  colleges  to  teach 
ethics  as  "  a  mongrel  library."  He  urged  that 
"  to  cultivate  morality  one  must  appeal,  as  the 
Bible  does,   to  the  moral  sense  rather  than  to 


WHY  READ  AND  STUDY  THE  BIBLE  179 

reason.  Hence  life  must  be  leavened  with  re- 
ligion and  children  infected  with  Christianity." 
Professor  Huxley,  whose  testimony  would  cer- 
tainly not  be  biased  by  any  prejudice  toward 
Christianity,  writes,  "  I  have  been  seriously  per- 
plexed to  know  how  the  religious  feeling,  which 
is  the  essential  basis  of  conduct,  can  be  kept  up 
without  the  use  of  the  Bible." 

Let  us,  then,  take  as  our  motto  the  words  which 
Wesley  wrote  on  the  fly-leaf  of  his  Bible,  "  Live 
today."  On  each  day's  threshold,  as  the  old 
Aryan  greeted  the  sun,  let  us  meet  with  Him 
whose  "  life  is  the  light  of  men,"  and  go  into 
the  world  with  His  light  on  our  faces. 

Rebuke  the  heresy  that  the  Bible  is  the  book 
for  the  pulpit,  but  not  for  the  shop  and  the  office. 
One  of  the  most  useful  Christians  I  have 
known  is  neither  a  minister  nor  an  evangelist, 
but  a  business  man.  For  thirty  years  or  more 
he  has  taught  every  Sunday  a  great  Bible  class 
of  men,  and  the  weeks  have  been  full  of  such 
contact  with  these  and  other  men,  and  such  ser- 
vice for  them  in  Christ's  name,  as  have  made  his 
life  a  constant  fountain  of  living  water. 

Seven  Reasons  for  Bible  Study. 

To  sum  up,  every  young  man  should  make  the 
Bible  central  in  his  reading  and  study: 

1.  Because  it  is  the  most  alive  and  widely 
studied  book  in  the  world  today. 

2.  Because  the  English  Bible  is  the  greatest 
classic  in  our  literature. 


l8o      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

3.  Because  its  study  enlarges  one's  horizon 
and  brings  one  in  touch  with  the  most  earnest 
and  self-sacrificing  spirits  of  this  and  of  every 
age. 

4.  Because  to  know  it  helps  one  to  appreciate 
all  else  that  is  best  in  literature. 

5.  Because  it  touches  and  crowns  all  other 
branches  of  knowledge. 

6.  Because  it  is  God's  appointed  means  for 
the  development  of  noble  Christian  character. 

7.  Because  it  contains  God's  message  of  grace 
and  power  for  the  full  salvation  of  the  needy 
world  in  which  He  has  placed  us. 

How  to  Get  to  Work. 

And  now  if  the  resolution  is  formed,  a  hint  or 
two  about  putting  it  into  effect  may  be  helpful. 

I.  Read  the  Bible  as  if  it  were  a  nezv  hook  just 
from  the  press.  Use  the  Revised  Version,  if  for 
no  other  reason,  because  it  is  printed  in  the  para- 
graph form  with  which  your  mind  is  familiar  in 
other  books.  Let  the  Sunday  newspaper  alone, 
if  you  have  been  in  the  habit  of  reading  it,  and 
sit  down  for  an  hour  to  the  Gospel  of  Mark  or 
the  story  of  Abraham  or  Joseph  or  David  or 
Ruth  or  Nehemiah.  I  risk  the  prophecy  that 
there  will  not  be  a  page  even  of  these  familiar 
narratives  on  which  you  will  fail  to  find  some- 
thing fresh  and  beautiful  and  suggestive  for  your 
own  life. 

Buy  a  volume  or  two  of  the  Modern  Reader's 


WHY  READ  AND  STUDY  THE  BIBLE  i8l 

Bible  series  at  any  book-store.  They  are  small 
and  cheap  and  easily  carried  in  the  pocket.  Take 
one  with  you  on  the  cars  and  give  it  some  of  the 
time  the  daily  paper  usually  gets.  If  you  love 
poetry,  begin  with  the  Job  or  Isaiah  volume. 
The  method  of  printing  will  make  it  a  new  book 
to  you.  If  you  are  fond  of  public  speaking,  try 
Deuteronomy  and  see  how  fine  Moses's  farewell 
orations  are.  If  you  are  a  keen  observer  of  life, 
try  Proverbs,  which  lends  itself  easily  to  frag- 
mentary reading.  Once  started,  follow  your  own 
tastes,  but  go  on  until  you  begin  to  feel  that  you 
are  really  making  the  Bible's  acquaintance. 

It  is  related  of  Matthew  Arnold,  the  English 
essayist,  that  he  once  said  to  Charles  Reade,  the 
novelist :  "  The  old  Bible  is  getting  to  be  to  us 
literary  men  of  England  a  sealed  book.  I  wish 
you  would  take  up  the  Old  Testament  and  go 
through  it  as  though  every  page  of  it  were  alto- 
gether new  to  you.  I  think  it  will  astonish  you." 
Reade  entered  on  the  undertaking  with  the  zeal 
which  characterized  all  his  work.  The  result 
was,  he  not  only  became  astonished  at  his  dis- 
coveries, but  became  a  sincere  and  humble  Chris- 
tian. Not  least  among  the  books  he  has  left 
behind  is  the  group  of  sketches  of  "  Bible  Char- 
acters "  which  he  wrote  late  in  his  life. 

2.  Join  a  Bible  class.  It  was  a  man  of  ability, 
who  stood  at  the  very  head  of  financial  circles  in 
his  nation,  who,  to  Philip's  question,  "  Under- 
standest  thou  what  thou  readest?"  (Acts  8:  30), 


i82      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

did  not  hesitate  to  reply,  "  How  can  I,  except 
some  one  shall  guide  me  ?  "  The  men  who  have 
studied  the  Bible  most  are  the  very  ones  who  are 
most  ready  to  learn  from  any  other  Spirit-filled 
man. 

If  you  are  able  to  choose,  begin  with  a  class 
which  is  studying  the  life  of  Christ.  This  is  the 
heart  of  revelation,  to  be  studied  over  and  over 
again.  After  you  have  made  a  beginning  with 
it  you  are  better  able  to  go  back  and  see  how 
all  Old  Testament  history,  law  and  prophecy  were 
a  preparation  for  it,  and  how  the  apostolic  his- 
tory  and  teachings   are   its   development. 

3.  Begin  every  day  with  devotional  Bible 
reading.  Form  the  habit  and  plan  the  day  so  as 
to  provide  for  it.  Go  to  bed  fifteen  minutes  or 
a  half-hour  earlier  than  you  have  been  accustomed 
to,  so  as  to  gain  that  time  in  the  freshness  of 
the  morning.  If  this  requires  sacrifice,  be  willing 
to  make  it,  and  be  as  faithful  in  your  appointment 
with  God  as  in  your  business  engagements.  Here, 
as  in  a  Bible  class,  a  systematic  plan  is  essential 
to  profit. 

4.  Never  forget  that  it  is  through  His  Word 
that  God  now  speaks  to  men.  In  the  earliest 
times  He  spoke  to  men  in  visions  and  dreams,  or 
mouth  to  mouth  as  to  Moses  (Num.  12:6-8). 
When  the  temple  was  built,  its  innermost  sanctu- 
ary, the  holy  of  holies,  was  called  "  the  oracle  " 
(I  Kings  8:  6),  the  place  where  God  would 
speak  to  His  people,  and  there  He  spake  with 


WHY  READ  AND   STUDY  THE  BIBLE         183 

Isaiah  (Isaiah  6).  Now  we  have  given  unto 
us  "the  living  oracles"  (Acts  7:  38);  the  veil 
is  rent,  and  we  have  access  into  the  presence  of 
God.  We  must  enter  reverently,  with  humble  but 
sure  reliance  on  the  blood  which  our  Great  High 
Priest  has  shed  for  us.  We  must  listen  to  hear 
God  speak,  and  then  we  shall  be  ready  to  go  out 
to  men,  like  Moses  from  God's  presence,  with  faces 
that  shine,  though  like  him  we  know  it  not.  If 
the  secret  of  backsliding  is  found  in  failure  to 
study  and  obey  God's  Word,  the  secret  of  much 
ineffective  Christian  work  is  found  in  bustling 
activity  for  God  without  quiet  communion  with 
God.  ' 

In  an  almshouse  in  Southern  Pennsylvania  a 
blind  man  sought  refuge  when  seventy  years  old. 
He  had  lived  a  wicked  life.  Some  ladies  came 
to  visit  and  read  the  Bible.  He  remembered  the 
promise  he  had  made  to  his  good  wife  at  her 
deathbed.  He  opened  his  heart  to  the  Gospel  and 
was  converted.  The  Bible  was  all  new  to  him, 
and  as  they  read  to  him  on  their  visits  he  drank 
it  in  as  a  thirsty  man  quaffs  water.  When  the 
supper  bell  rang,  he  begged  them  to  go  on,  "  I 
would  rather  have  you  read  than  go  to  supper." 
Even  when  he  had  his  sight,  his  education  had 
never  gone  further  than  to  know  his  letters.  But 
now,  this  old  blind  Christian  hungered  to  learn 
to  read  that  he  might  be  able  to  read  God's  Word 
for  himself.  Instruction  books  for  the  blind  were 
obtained,  and  he  toiled  patiently  over  them  day 


l84      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

after  day,  with  his  fingers  roughened  by  years 
of  labor,  until  he  could  read  the  Bible  for  the 
blind.  He  committed  and  recited  perfectly  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  John.  Soon  he  said  to  the 
ladies,  "  The  reading  now  is  nothing  to  the  think- 
ing of  it  out."  Surely  the  almshouse  had  become 
a  sanctuary. 

He  who  approaches  the  Bible  in  the  spirit  of 
this  old  blind  Christian  will  find  for  himself  the 
truth  of  the  assurance  with  which  God's  great 
angel  closed  the  highest  message  ever  sent  to 
earth  from  Heaven : 

"  No     WORD     FROM      GOD     SHALL     BE     VOID     OF 

POWER.''    (Luke  i:  37.) 


VIII 
Pihle  B>tvihp  for  ^Pergonal  Spiritual  (grotutfj 

JOHN   R.   MOTT 

Let  us  note  at  the  outset  that  it  is  the  Bible  of 
which  we  are  to  think  in  this  discussion;  not 
books  about  the  Bible,  no  matter  how  many,  or 
how  helpful,  or  how  accessible  they  may  be.  Let 
us  also  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  Bible  study  that  is 
to  engage  our  attention,  not  the  subject  of  Bible 
reading,  although  we  might  profitably  spend  much 
time  upon  that.  Nor  are  we  to  consider  the  sub- 
ject of  Bible  listening,  although  that  is  almost  a 
lost  art  in  these  days.  It  is  Bible  study  which  we 
are  to  emphasize,  with  all  that  the  word  study 
means  to  us  as  students.  Moreover,  it  is  Bible 
study  for  personal  growth.  It  is  not  that  form 
of  Bible  study  designed  to  equip  us  to  lead  others, 
one  by  one,  to  Jesus  Christ,  although  it  furnishes 
an  essential  part  of  our  equipment  for  such  work. 
Nor  is  the  object  of  such  study  first  of  all  to 
enable  us  to  help  other  Christians  spiritually,  by 
preparing  us  to  give  Bible  readings,  or  to  make 
spiritual  talks,  or  to  teach  Bible  classes,  or  to 
guide  the  Bible  study  of  others,  although  it  will 
prove  invaluable   as  a  preparation   for  all   such 


l86      THE   BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

work.  It  is  Bible  study  for  each  man's  own  life 
which  we  shall  keep  clearly  before  us.  It  is  in- 
tensely personal.    Its  object  is  personal  growth. 

What  kind  of  growth  is  meant  ?  Not  growth  in 
knowledge,  although  the  world  could  far  better 
afford  to  lose  any  other  sixty-six  books  than  these, 
viewing  them  simply  as  a  storehouse  of  essential 
knowledge.  Not  intellectual  growth,  although  it 
may  be  stated  confidently  that  there  is  no  other 
group  of  writings  the  study  of  which  affords  the 
same  intellectual  suggestiveness,  grasp,  breadth, 
and  power.  Above  and  beyond  all  this  is  the 
meaning  of  the  term  to  which  we  shall  limit  our 
thought  —  Bible  study  for  each  man's  spiritual 
growth.  It  is  that  Bible  study  which  will  make 
us  better  men  tomorrow  than  today;  which  will 
find  us  far  higher  up  the  mountain  path  of  Chris- 
tian experience  a  year  hence  than  at  present; 
which  enables  us  to  meet  God  and  to  hear  His 
voice  and  to  know  that  it  is  His  voice.  It  is  that 
Bible  study  which  opens  up  to  us,  each  day,  fur- 
ther and  further  vistas  into  the  possibilities  of 
the  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

The  Importance  of  Devotional  Bible  Study. 

I.  To  us  as  Christians.  It  is  the  test  of  true 
discipleship.  Christ  says,  **  If  ye  abide  in  My 
Word,  then  are  ye  truly  My  disciples."  We  may 
call  ourselves  His  disciples,  but  that  does  not 
prove  that  we  are.  Our  names  may  be  on  the 
roll  of  his  professed   disciples,   but  that  is  not 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  187 

sufficient  proof.  The  real  test  is  the  life,  and 
that  is  not  possible  apart  from  devotional  Bible 
study.  If  you  abide  in  the  Word  —  that  is,  if 
you  spend  time  there,  if  you  dwell  there,  if 
you  live  there  —  then  will  you  necessarily  be  a 
true  disciple.  Such  Bible  study  alone  shows  us 
the  needs  of  our  spiritual  lives.  It  reveals  to  us 
the  weak  places  in  our  armor,  the  points  of  least 
resistance  in  our  lives.  It  shows  us  ourselves 
as  we  are,  and  therefore  as  God  sees  us.  Chrys- 
ostom  says,  "  The  cause  of  all  our  evils  is  our 
not  knowing  the  Scriptures."  Therefore,  if  we 
would  overcome  doubts,  temptations,  passion, 
evil  imaginations,  unclean,  unholy,  and  proud 
thoughts,  let  us  center  our  energies  upon  such 
study.  The  devotional  study  of  the  Bible  alone 
shows  us  the  possibilities  of  our  spiritual  lives. 
Why  be  satisfied  with  living  on  the  dead  level 
or  in  the  valley,  if  God  intends  that  we  be  climb- 
ing in  the  peaks  ?  The  only  place  where  the  great 
mountain  peaks  of  Christian  experience  are  re- 
vealed is  in  the  Scriptures.  Would  we  be  Chris- 
tians of  more  than  ordinary  spiritual  power? 
Then  we  must  be  great  feeders  upon  the  Word, 
which  is  not  only  quick  but  powerful.  De  Quincey 
has  divided  all  knowledge  into  the  literature  of 
knowledge  and  the  literature  of  power.  The 
sacred  writings  constitute  pre-eminently  the  liter- 
ature of  power.  To  have  real  power  with  God 
we  must  give  ourselves  to  this  study.  This  is 
clearly  taught  in  the  words,  "  If  ye  abide  in  Me, 


l88      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

and  My  words  abide  In  you,  ask  whatsoever  ye 
will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you."  Other  helps 
to  spirituality  without  devotional  Bible  study  may 
become  dangerous.  The  habit  of  meditation,  for 
example,  without  the  Bible  is  likely  to  lead  a 
man  to  become  morbid  and  melancholy ;  whereas, 
conducted  with  the  aid  of  the  Bible,  it  is  a  most 
healthful  process.  Secret  prayer,  moreover,  is 
practically  impossible  without  Bible  study,  be- 
cause real  prayer  is  not  monologue  but  dialogue. 
It  requires  two  to  have  true  communion.  We 
must  give  God  an  opportunity  to  speak  to  us 
as  well  as  ourselves  an  opportunity  to  speak  to 
Him. 

2.  To  us  as  Christian  teachers.  Think  over 
your  teachers,  either  in  things  intellectual  or 
things  spiritual.  Which  of  them  helped  you  the 
most?  Were  they  not  the  teachers  who  had  the 
life  behind  the  words?  Devotional  Bible  study 
alone  gives  sincerity.  And  no  one  detects  insin- 
cerity or  cant  so  quickly  as  the  unbelievers  who 
are  in  our  classes  or  who  watch  us  in  other 
relationships.  Moreover,  it  is  noticeable  in  col- 
leges having  the  elective  system  that  the  best 
students  prefer  drinking  from  a  running  stream 
to  drinking  from  a  stagnant  pool;  that  is,  they 
prefer  to  enter  the  classes  of  teachers  who  are 
themselves  growing  rather  than  of  those  who  are 
giving  old  material,  without  at  least  living  over 
it  again.  In  AustraUa  recently  some  new  gold 
fields   were   discovered.     We   met   hundreds   of 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  189 

persons  on  their  way  to  these  new  fields.  So  it 
is,  if  a  teacher  keeps  finding  new  riches  he  sets 
all  his  pupils  to  digging.  If  he  rejoices  with 
David  "  as  one  having  found  great  spoil,"  many 
others  will  be  attracted  to  the  search.  In  a  word, 
therefore,  if  we  would  hold  the  interest,  enthu- 
siasm, or  even  the  attendance  of  Bible  classes, 
let  us  give  attention  to  enriching  our  spiritual 
lives. 

3.  To  us  as  Christian  workers.  Would  we 
work  without  friction,  strain,  anxiety,  worry? 
Then  let  us  apply  ourselves  to  this  kind  of  Bible 
study.  We  may  not  work  so  many  hours,  but  we 
shall  accomplish  more,  and,  when  we  leave,  our 
work  will  not  have  to  be  undone.  Without  deep 
devotional  study  there  is  danger  that  our  work 
become  purely  mechanical.  It  alone  will  make 
our  experience  fresh,  rich,  and  full,  and  keep 
the  realities  of  our  faith  vivid.  If  we  would 
shape  the  work,  and  not  be  shaped  by  it,  we 
must  through  these  studies  preserve  a  strong  and 
ever-expanding  inner  life.  Moreover,  our  fruit- 
fulness  in  Christian  work  is  absolutely  conditional 
on  our  abiding  in  the  Word.  Above  all,  it  is 
impossible  to  have  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  as  a  constant  possession  apart  from  the 
study  of  the  Bible.  To  do  the  work  of  God  we 
must  have  the  power  of  God.  To  have  the  power 
of  God  we  must  have  the  Spirit  of  God.  The 
Bible  is  the  channel  through  which  the  Spirit 
comes  into  the  life.    We  do  not  find  Spirit-filled 


IQO      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE   WORLD  TODAY 

men  apart  from  deep,  devotional  Bible  students. 
If  we  would  be  filled  with  the  Spirit,  keep  filled, 
and  have  our  capacity  constantly  increase,  let  us 
become  possessed  with  the  Bible  study  passion. 
4.  To  us  as  Christian  leaders.  If  those  over 
whom  God  has  placed  us  are  to  be  spiritual,  we 
must  be  spiritual  leaders.  The  stream  never  rises 
above  the  fountain  head.  Moreover,  if  we  would 
be  safe  leaders  we  must  study  with  intensity  the 
mind  of  God  concerning  our  work  and  problems. 
The  Bible  is  the  principal  place  where  that  is 
revealed.  More  than  all,  if  we  would  have  the 
true  idea  and  spirit  of  Christian  leadership,  we 
must  study  with  diligence  the  life  of  that  Leader 
of  leaders,  as  clearly  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures. 

Hindrances  to  Devotional  Bible  Study. 

Let  us  clear  the  ground,  first  of  all,  of  that 
supposed  hindrance  —  lack  of  time.  In  each 
country  that  we  visit  the  Christian  men  and 
women  claim  that  they  are  busier  than  those  of 
any  other  country.  There  are  many  persons  who 
conscientiously  think  they  do  not  have  half  an 
hour  a  day  to  spend  in  Bible  study.  Let  us 
suggest  two  ways  of  meeting  this  hindrance. 
There  is  time  to  do  the  will  of  God.  Is  it  the 
will  of  God  that  I  grow  spiritually?  Yes;  for 
He  does  not  wish  me  to  become  unspiritual  or 
to  stand  still.  Has  a  man  ever  grown  spiritually 
apart  from  devotional  Bible  study?  We  have 
not   found   that   man.     Have  you?     Therefore, 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  191 

there  is  time  to  study  the  Bible  daily  for  our 
own  spiritual  growth.  This,  you  say,  is  logical 
but  theoretical.  Well,  then,  will  you  for  one 
month  try  the  plan  of  spending  the  first  half 
hour  of  the  day  in  Bible  study,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  time  let  us  know  whether  it  has  interfered 
with  your  regular  work  or  standing  or  efficiency? 
Hundreds  of  persons  in  different  parts  of  the 
world  have  accepted  this  challenge.  Thus  far  not 
one  has  reported  that  his  work  or  standing  has 
suffered  in  the  least.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
of  them  report  that  such  study  has  enabled  them 
to  do  more  and  better  work.  Is  it  fair,  therefore, 
for  any  of  us,  without  trying  it,  to  say  that  this 
cannot  be  done? 

Many  conscientious  Christians  raise  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  reading  of  devotional  books  will 
not  take  the  place  of  Bible  study?  We  firmly 
believe  that  much  of  the  lack  of  spiritual  fiber 
among  Christians  today  is  due  to  a  second-hand 
knowledge  of  the  books  of  God.  We  would  not 
be  misunderstood,  for  we  have  derived  too  much 
benefit  from  such  books  as  The  Confessions  of 
St  Augustine,  The  Imitation  of  Christ  by  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  The  Spiritual  Letters  of  Fenelon, 
Baxter's  Saints'  Everlasting  Rest,  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor's two  spiritual  classics.  Law's  Serious  Call, 
and  the  more  recent  writings  of  Murray,  Meyer, 
Moule,  and  Miss  Havergal.  The  point  is,  why 
not  go  to  first  sources  ?  One,  in  speaking  of  some 
of  these  writings,  has  said  that  in  their  most  ap- 


192      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

pealing  tones  they  echo  the  voices  of  the  Bible. 
After  all,  these  things  ought  we  to  have  done  and 
not  to  have  left  the  other  undone. 

Some  people  are  hindered  from  studying  the 
Bible  devotionally  because  they  are  afraid  to  do 
so.  One  day  while  in  India  two  young  men  said 
to  us :  "  If  we  study  the  Bible  in  this  way,  we  are 
afraid  it  will  compel  us  to  abandon  our  plan  of 
entering  Government  service,  and  to  devote  our- 
selves to  Christian  work."  A  Mohammedan  stu- 
dent in  Egypt  told  us  that,  if  he  studied  the 
Bible  in  this  way,  he  would  have  to  become  a 
Christian.  In  another  place  a  young  man  said  it 
would  make  it  necessary  for  him  to  give  up  a 
certain  bad  habit.  Afraid  of  the  light!  How 
unscientific  and  unscholarly  and  cowardly!  The 
reason  why  some  do  not  study  the  Bible  devo- 
tionally is  because  they  have  no  suitable  course 
of  study  to  follow.    This  leads  to  the  third  point. 

Suggested  Courses  of  Devotional  Study. 

It  would  be  an  excellent  thing  if  each  one  of 
us  had  studied  the  Bible  as  a  whole  and  the  dif- 
ferent books  composing  it  —  their  setting,  con- 
struction, contents,  and  purpose.  The  more  of 
such  study  we  have  the  better  use  we  can  make 
of  the  Bible  devotionally.  But  to  complete  such 
a  scheme  of  study  would  require  a  lifetime.  For- 
tunately it  is  not  necessary  to  master  the  Bible 
critically  before  we  begin  to  study  it  for  daily 
spiritual  profit. 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  193 

The  first  suggested  course  would  be  the  study 
of  the  more  devotional  books  of  the  Bible.  Some 
books  of  the  Bible  are  better  for  devotional  study 
than  others.  One  of  the  foremost  Bible  students 
in  Britain  has  said  that  for  devotional  purposes 
we  should  study  first,  foremost,  and  in  this 
order :  The  Gospels,  Colossians,  Hebrews,  Psalms, 
Isaiah,  Deuteronomy.  We  submitted  this  list  to 
one  of  the  greatest  devotional  Bible  students  in 
America.  He  suggested  only  one  change,  namely, 
the  placing  of  Deuteronomy  before  Isaiah.  It 
seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  well  for  Christian 
workers  to  place  the  Book  of  Acts  after  the 
Gospels.  There  are  different  methods  of  study- 
ing a  book  devotionally.  The  outline  studies  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  and  the  Book  of  Acts  by 
Robert  E.  Speer,  and  of  St.  John's  Gospel  by 
W.  W.  White,  will  be  found  specially  suggestive 
and  helpful  on  this  point. 

A  second  course,  which  has  been  followed  with 
great  profit  by  many,  is  ''  The  Messages  of  the 
Epistles  to  Me."  We  are  indebted  for  this  method 
to  Professor  H.  C.  G.  Moule,  of  Cambridge 
University  (now  Bishop  of  Durham).  The  out- 
line which  he  recommends,  and  which  may  be 
followed  in  our  study  of  any  Epistle,  is  as 
follows : 

1.  Account  of  Christ:  a.  Human  history;  h. 
Divine  history ;   c.    Relation  to  His  followers. 

2.  Account  of  the  Christian  life:  a.  Inward; 
h.    Outward. 


194      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

3.  Account  of  the  writer's  life  in  Christ.  We 
would  suggest  that  at  first  the  shorter  epistles 
be  taken. 

The  study  of  biographies  has  always  proved 
stimulating  to  the  spiritual  life.  What  incentives 
to  growth  and  endeavor  would  come  from  a  close, 
practical  study  of  a  series  of  lives ;  e.  g.,  Joseph, 
Moses,  Elijah,  Daniel,  John  the  Baptist,  John, 
Peter,  Stephen,  and  Paul?  To  guide  us  in  such 
study  we  might  take  a  simple  outline  like  the 
following:  a  man's  preparation  for  his  Hfe-work, 
qualifications,  difficulties  encountered,  achieve- 
ments, the  secret  of  his  enduring  influence. 

The  topical  study  of  the  Bible  is  also  very 
fruitful.  Mr.  Moody  every  year  at  Northfield 
urged  the  importance  of  devoting  at  least  one 
month  of  Bible  study  to  each  of  the  great  doc- 
trines ;  for  example,  sin,  the  atonement,  regenera- 
tion, faith.  When  in  college  two  of  us  met  for 
the  study  of  the  Bible.  We  wanted  something 
to  counteract  the  effect  of  sceptical  philosophy. 
We  took  up  the  topic  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  think- 
ing we  might  finish  it  in  three  months.  We  spent 
the  year  upon  it,  and  then  felt  that  we  had  only 
opened  the  door.  It  proved,  however,  for  us,  to 
be  the  very  unlocking  of  the  Scriptures  devo- 
tionally.  Or  we  might  take  the  topic  prayer,  or 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  It  is  not  necessary  to  pro- 
long the  list. 

The  last  course  of  study,  and  by  far  the  most 
important,   is   the  study  of  Jesus   Christ.     One 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  195 

day  In  Edinburgh  I  asked  Professor  Drummond 
to  name  three  courses  of  study  which  might  be 
recommended  to  Christians  for  spiritual  profit. 
After  a  few  moments  of  thought  he  repHed: 
"  I  would  recommend  that  they  study,  first,  the 
Life  of  Jesus  Christ ;  secondly,  the  Life  of  Jesus 
Christ;  and  thirdly,  the  Life  of  Jesus  Christ." 
He  is  right.  It  takes  us  to  the  very  heart  of  the 
subject.  Pre-eminent  and  essential  for  the  spir- 
itual life  is  the  constant  and  devout  study  of 
Christ  Himself.  We  would  recommend  the  fol- 
lowing six  phases  of  the  study  of  Christ :  the 
character  of  Christ,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the 
teachings  of  Christ,  the  commands  of  Christ, 
Christ  as  a  worker,  Christ  as  a  man  of  prayer. 

When  so  many  courses  of  study  are  mentioned 
there  is  danger  that  some  of  us  will  be  confused, 
hesitate,  and  fail  to  take  up  any.  It  matters  not 
so  much  what  course  we  adopt.  The  main  thing 
is  that  we  decide  upon  some  one  course,  and  hold 
to  it  until  it  yields  fruit  in  our  lives  and  work. 

The  Manner  of  Devotional  Bible  Study. 

1.  Break  up  the  subject  to  be  studied  into 
convenient  or  suitable  daily  subdivisions.  In  this 
way  there  will  be  some  definite  thing  to  take  up 
each  day,  and  valuable  time  will  not  be  lost 
casting  about  to  find  out  where  to  begin.  If  we 
are  to  really  search  the  Scriptures,  we  must  have 
things  in  mind  for  which  we  will  search. 

2.  Be  alone,  if  possible,  while  engaged  in  such 


196      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

devotional  study.  This  will  often  be  difficult,  but 
it  is  well  worth  the  effort.  We  need  to  be  where 
we  can  speak  aloud  to  God.  It  is  said  that 
David  Brainerd,  in  order  to  be  alone  for  medi- 
tation upon  the  Word,  was  in  the  habit  of  com- 
mitting to  memory  passages  of  Scripture,  and 
then  walking  alone  in  the  streets  of  New  Haven, 
or  in  the  neighboring  fields,  revolving  these  pas- 
sages in  his  mind,  applying  them  to  his  life,  and 
conversing  with  God. 

3.  Keep  in  mind  constantly  the  object  of  this 
kind  of  Bible  study.  It  is  to  meet  my  spiritual 
need,  not  that  of  another.  It  is  to  enrich  my 
life.  It  is  to  lift  my  ideals.  It  is  to  enable  me 
to  meet  God  and  to  hear  His  voice,  to  me,  per- 
sonally. We  do  well  to  remind  ourselves  of  this 
object  many  times  during  our  study. 

4.  Let  there  be  resolute  detachment  of  mind. 
Let  us  keep  our  thoughts  from  the  thing  which 
we  have  just  been  doing  and  from  the  thing  which 
we  mean  to  do  next,  and  shut  ourselves  in  alone 
with  God  and  His  Word.  This  is  all  the  more 
important  if  our  time  be  limited.  If  we  have 
but  half  an  hour  to  devote  to  such  study  each 
morning,  we  do  not  wish  to  spend  half  of  it 
getting  the  mind  fixed  upon  the  subject. 

.5.  Do  not  be  diverted  from  the  main  purpose 
of  the  study.  This  is  the  peril  of  many  Bible 
students.  We  come  to  something  which,  as  Peter 
says,  is  hard  to  be  understood,  and  are  apt  to 
think  that  that  difficulty  must  be  removed  before 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  197 

we  can  go  further  in  our  devotional  study.  Not 
so.  Let  us  keep  a  paper  on  which  we  can  note 
any  difficulty  that  we  come  to,  and  at  some  sub- 
sequent time,  as  true  scholars,  let  us  seek  to 
understand  it.  But  let  us  not  be  cheated  out  of 
our  daily  spiritual  food  by  mere  intellectual  curi- 
osity, important  as  that  is  in  its  proper  place. 

6.  Be  thorough.  We  have  far  too  much  sur- 
face study  of  the  Bible.  Gold  dust  is  often  found 
on  the  surface,  but  as  a  rule  we  have  to  dig 
for  the  nuggets.  We  need  to  sink  a  shaft  in 
the  Scriptures  in  order  to  get  at  the  deep  things 
of  God. 

7.  Meditate.  Jeremiah  best  defines  this  proc- 
ess :  "  Thy  words  were  found  and  I  did  eat 
them  " ;  that  is,  I  take  these  words  into  my  mind, 
I  store  them  in  memory,  I  revolve  them  over  and 
over  again,  I  let  them  touch  the  springs  of  con- 
science, I  let  them  find  me,  I  let  the  will  act 
upon  them  and  apply  them,  I  give  them  right  of 
way  in  my  life,  I  make  them  part  of  myself,  I 
realize  in  actual  experience  that  the  words  of 
Christ  "  are  spirit  and  are  life."    : 

8.  Record  results.  If  you  put  down  one  point 
each  day  you  will  gain  over  three  hundred  points 
within  the  year.  Most  of  us  keep  a  financial 
record.  All  of  us  are  in  the  habit  of  taking  notes 
on  what  we  hear  men  say.  Is  it  not  worth  while 
to  keep  a  careful  record  of  God's  dealings  with 
us?  It  is  my  practice  to  carry  slips  of  paper 
in  the  Bible  constantly,  on  which  to  note  such 


198      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

points.  I  would  rather  part  with  the  notes  taken 
when  listening  to  the  most  distinguished  lec- 
turers I  have  ever  heard  than  with  these  little 
papers,  which  contain  the  record  of  my  own  soul 
struggles  and  of  God's  personal  dealings  with  me. 

The  Spirit  for  Devotional  Bible  Study. 

1.  It  should  be  an  earnest  or  intense  spirit. 
Ruskin  says,  "  He  who  would  understand  a  paint- 
ing must  give  himself  to  it."  He  who  would 
understand  the  deep  things  of  God  must  give 
himself  to  them. 

2.  It  must  be  a  spirit  of  dependence  upon  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  spirit  must  interpret  what  the 
Spirit  has  inspired. 

3.  This  suggests  that  it  must  be  a  prayerful 
spirit.  George  Miiller,  in  writing  of  his  experi- 
ence in  Bible  study,  says :  "  Spending  three  hours 
on  my  knees,  I  made  such  progress  that  I  learned 
more  in  those  three  hours  than  in  years  before. 
From  that  time  I  became  a  lover  of  the  Word 
of  God."  Does  he  mean  that  he  learned  more 
facts  in  three  hours  than  in  years  before?  No; 
he  means  that  he  spent  enough  time  with  the 
light  of  God's  presence  shed  upon  the  Word  to 
have  revealed  to  him  a  secret  which  in  turn  un- 
locked other  secrets,  and  thus  to  have  opened 
before  him  a  whole  vista  of  truth.  Many  times 
we  need  to  turn  from  the  sacred  pages  with  this 
prayer :  "  Open  Thou  mine  eyes  that  I  may  be- 
hold wondrous  things  out  of  Thy  law."    We  can 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  199 

see  the  ordinary  things  without  the  help  of  God ; 
but  the  unaided  intellect,  at  its  best,  is  absolutely 
unable  to  grasp  the  wondrous  things  of  God. 

4.  It  should  be  a  childlike  spirit.  Bacon  urges, 
"  One  must  enter  the  kingdom  of  the  natural 
sciences  like  a  little  child."  Christ  insisted,  "  Elx- 
cept  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children, 
ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven," 
still  less  understand  its  deep  mysteries. 

5.  It  should  be  an  obedient  spirit.  We  must 
be  willing  to  let  the  Bible  mean  what  it  wants 
to  mean.  We  must  be  willing  to  have  our  lives 
changed,  cost  what  it  may.  "  The  organ  of  spir- 
itual knowledge  is  an  obedient  spirit." 

6.  Finally,  it  should  be  a  practical  spirit.  This 
term  is  best  defined  in  the  Scripture  language, 
"  All  that  the  Lord  hath  spoken  we  will  do." 
If  we  would  determine  at  once  that  henceforth  in 
our  Bible  study,  as  we  come  to  commands  which 
we  have  not  obeyed,  we  would  with  God's  help 
obey  them ;  as  we  come  to  precepts  which  we  have 
not  heeded,  we  would  in  His  strength  heed  them ; 
as  we  see  examples  which  we  have  not  imitated, 
we  would  under  the  Spirit's  influence  imitate  them 
—  our  lives  would  grow  by  leaps  and  bounds. 

The  Time  for  Devotional  Bible  Study. 

I.  Let  it  be  a  regular  time.  We  should  have 
a  Median  and  Persian  hour,  that  is,  an  unchange- 
able hour.  It  is  a  well-known  law  of  psychology 
that  to  form  a  habit  we  must  suffer  no  exceptions. 


2CX)      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

2.  Let  it  be  a  daily  time.  Some  of  us  may 
have  a  regular  time,  for  example,  once  each  week ; 
but  the  daily  plan  is  the  more  excellent  one.  The 
world  pulls  us  daily.  Satan  spreads  his  snares 
for  us  more  than  once  each  day.  Self  asserts 
itself  many  times  each  day.  Therefore  we  should 
fortify  our  lives  spiritually  at  least  once  a  day. 

3.  Let  it  be  an  unhurried  time.  We  should 
give  ourselves  believing  time.  It  takes  time  to 
become  spiritual.  Spirituality  is  not  a  matter 
of  chance;  it  must  be  preceded  by  an  adequate 
cause.  If  we  would  have  large  spiritual  results 
in  our  lives,  there  must  be  sufficient  spiritual 
causes.  There  is  natural  law  in  the  spiritual 
world.  But  some  one  asks.  How  much  time  is 
unhurried  time?  I  trust  it  will  not  mean  less 
than  half  an  hour  each  day  for  any  of  us.  Yet 
more  important  than  this,  it  means  time  enough 
to  forget  time;  time  enough  to  forget  the  watch 
and  the  clock;  time  enough  to  forget  the  thing 
we  have  been  doing,  and  the  thing  we  mean  to 
do  next;  time  enough  to  meet  God,  and  to  hear 
Him  speaking  to  the  depths  of  our  lives.  I  am 
not  pleading  for  a  mere  form,  but  for  an  actual, 
personal,  daily  meeting  on  the  part  of  each  soul 
with  its  God. 

4.  Let  it  be  the  very  choicest  time  in  the  day. 
When  is  that?  I  used  to  think  it  was  the  last 
thing  at  night,  but  I  found  that  usually  the  mind 
was  tired  or  occupied  with  the  many  things  which 
had  taken  place  during  the  day.    Then  I  tried  the 


PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  GROWTH  201 

middle  of  the  day,  but  found  it  impossible  to 
avoid  interruptions  at  that  time.  At  last,  several 
years  ago,  when  I  was  at  Cambridge,  I  heard 
of  the  Morning  Watch  —  the  plan  of  spending 
the  first  half  Viour  or  first  hour  of  the  day  alone 
with  God  —  and  adopted  the  plan.  With  some 
of  you  who  are  following  the  same  plan,  I  firmly 
believe  that  it  is  the  best  time  in  the  day.  The 
mind  is  less  occupied.  The  mind  is,  as  a  rule, 
clearer,  and  the  memory  more  retentive.  But 
forget  these  reasons  if  you  choose.  The  whole 
case  may  be  staked  on  this  argument:  it  equips 
a  man  for  the  day's  fight  with  self  and  sin  and 
Satan.  He  does  not  wait  until  noon  before  he 
buckles  on  his  armor.  He  does  not  wait  until 
he  has  given  way  to  temper,  or  to  unkind  words, 
or  to  unworthy  thoughts,  or  to  easily  besetting 
sin,  and  then  have  his  Bible  study.  He  enters 
the  day  forewarned  and  forearmed.  John  Quincy 
Adams,  President  of  the  United  States,  noted 
in  his  journal,  in  connection  with  his  custom 
of  studying  the  Bible  each  morning,  "  It  seems  to 
me  the  most  suitable  manner  of  beginning  the 
day."  Lord  Cairns,  one  of  the  busiest  men  in 
Great  Britain,  devoted  the  first  hour  and  a  half 
of  every  day  to  Bible  study  and  secret  prayer. 
We  have  all  heard  how  Chinese  Gordon,  while 
in  the  Soudan,  had  a  certain  sign  before  his 
tent  each  morning  which  meant  that  he  must  be 
left  alone.  A  friend  recently  saw  his  Bible  in 
the   Queen's   apartments   at   Windsor,   and  told 


202      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

me  that  the  pages  of  that  book,  which  was  his 
companion  in  the  morning  watch,  were  so  worn 
that  one  could  scarcely  read  the  print.  He 
always  reminds  me  of  Sir  Henry  Havelock,  who 
took  care  to  be  alone  each  morning  to  ponder 
some  portion  of  the  Bible.  When  on  the  heaviest 
marches  it  was  determined  to  start  at  some  earlier 
hour  than  that  which  he  had  fixed  for  his  de- 
votions, he  arose  quite  in  time  to  hold  undisturbed 
his  communion  with  God.  Ruskin,  in  speaking  to 
the  students  at  Oxford,  said,  "  Read  your  Bible, 
making  it  the  first  morning  business  of  your  life  to 
understand  some  portion  of  it  clearly,  and  your 
daily  business  to  obey  it  in  all  that  you  do  under- 
stand." Francke  spent  the  first  hour  of  every 
day  in  private  devotions.  Wesley,  for  the  last 
forty  years  of  his  life,  rose  every  morning  at 
four  o'clock,  and  devoted  from  one  to  two  hours 
to  devotional  Bible  study  and  prayer.  Ruther- 
ford was  accustomed  to  rise  every  morning  at 
three  o'clock,  and  the  whole  of  the  earlier  hours 
of  the  day  were  spent  by  him  in  prayer  and  medi- 
tation and  study.  Greater  than  all,  we  have  it  on 
the  best  of  evidence  that  Christ  rose  a  great  while 
before  it  was  day  to  hold  communion  with  God. 
What  He  found  necessary  or  even  desirable  can 
we  do  without?  Spirituality  costs.  Shall  we 
pay  what  it  costs? 


IX 
3|otD  to  iWafee  tfte  pible  JSlEal 

HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profit- 
able for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction, 
for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness :  that 
the  man  of  God  may  be  complete,  furnished 
completely  unto  every  good  work.  —  2  Tim. 
3:16,   17. 

1.  Make  it  unmistakably  plain  to  yourself  that 
the  Bible  teaches  that  it  is  itself  the  great  means 
of  grace.  Mark  12:24;  Acts  20:32;  2  Tim. 
3:  16,  17;   John  17:  17. 

From  whatever  point  of  view  one  regards  the 
Christian  life,  he  must  lay  the  strongest  empha- 
sis on  the  Word.  It  may  be  safely  said  that  the 
growth  of  a  Christian  is,  in  the  great  majority 
of  cases,  quite  exactly  proportioned  to  the  real 
applied  knowledge  of  the  Word  of  God.  "  Is  it 
not  for  this  cause  that  ye  err,  that  ye  know  not 
the  Scriptures  nor  the  power  of  God?" 

2.  Treat  it  as  you  do  other  deep  books.  Apply 
the  same  method  to  it,  and  expect  results  on  the 
same  conditions.  Do  not  be  impatient.  The  one 
great  reason  why  the  Bible  is  not  more  real  to 


204      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD   TODAY 

US  is  that  we  do  not  treat  it  as  though  it  were 
real.  We.  treat  it  as  we  do  not  expect  to  treat 
any  other  similar  book. 

If  you  go  to  it  in  this  sensible  fashion,  then, 
you  will  wish  to  have  the  best  translation,  in  the 
best  form,  and  you  will,  therefore,  use  the  Revised 
Version,  both  because  it  gives  you  the  meaning 
more  exactly,  and  because  of  its  division  into 
paragraphs.  The  "  American  Standard  "  edition 
is  the  best.  And  you  will  need  a  good-sized  type 
which  will  make  your  reading  easy,  not  difficult. 
It  is  very  costly  economy  that  keeps  you  to  a 
fine  print  old  version,  though  it  be  bound  in 
morocco.  Moulton's  Modern  Reader's  Bible, 
simply  because  it  prints  the  text  as  a  modern 
book  would  be  printed  —  especially  in  the  Proph- 
ets—  will  be  a  great  help  to  many.  Fresh 
translations  also,  like  The  Twentieth  Century 
New  Testament,  or  Ballentine's  The  American 
Bible,  have  a  real  and  large  contribution  to 
make.  And  paraphrases,  like  those  in  Sanders 
and  Kent's  series,  The  Messages  of  the  Bible, 
bring  the  material  before  us  in  still  another 
way. 

This  sensible  looking  at  the  Bible,  also,  will 
lead  to  another  resolution:  henceforth  to  use  no 
language  about  the  Book  that  does  not  have  real 
meaning  to  you.  You  will  not  echo  phrases,  but 
you  will  think  ideas. 

Moreover  you  will  understand  at  once  that  it 
is  as  absurd   to   expect   large   results   from   the 


HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  BIBLE  REAL        205 

Bible,  without  spending  time  upon  it,  as  from 
any  other  book.  A  Httle  time,  taken  persistently 
every  day,  will  accomplish  much.  Coupled  with 
this,  will  come  the  twin  conviction  that  so  deep  a 
book,  treating  of  such  profound  themes,  justly 
asks  and  requires  not  hearing  or  reading  merely, 
but  study  —  study  such  as  students  expect  to  put 
on  their  text-books.     Therefore  — 

3.    Study  the  Bible. 

If  going  to  it,  in  this  sensible  fashion,  then, 
that  it  may  be  always  able  to  give  you  fresh 
suggestions  and  not  merely  those  received  be- 
fore. But  another  copy  may  well  be  marked 
freely;  or  you  may  use  a  note  book  continually 
with  your  study.  For  example,  note  by  numbers 
the  separate  points  made  in  a  paragraph;  find 
the  prevailing  thought  in  each  paragraph  and 
make  a  definite  statement  of  it  in  the  margin 
or  in  your  note  book ;  note  the  logical  connections 
of  the  paragraphs  with  one  another,  and  so  get 
at  the  line  of  argument  of  a  chapter;  then  con- 
nect the  chapters  similarly.  Work  out  thus  an 
analysis  for  the  whole  book,  after  having  clearly 
stated  its  manifest  purpose  as  disclosed  in  your 
study.  It  is  often  of  decided  value  to  write  a 
paraphrase  of  a  chapter  —  either  expanded  or 
abridged  —  for  this  compels  you  to  rethink  in 
new  forms  the  thought  of  the  chapter.  This  real 
thinking  of  the  thoughts  of  the  Bible  must  be 
the  aim  and  justification  of  any  method.  For 
the  same  purpose  it  is  often  helpful  to  note  a 


2o6      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

recurrence  of  some  dominant  thought,  or  the 
piling  up  of  motives  in  some  exhortation.  The 
prime  thing  is  no  set  method,  but  a  Hve  attempt 
to  master  the  thought  of  the  author. 

Looking  at  the  Bible  in  this  light,  you  will 
cease  to  depend  on  its  unconscious  influence, 
but  you  will  seek  definite  intelligent  impressions 
—  some  clear  teachings;  and  you  will  take  it 
for  granted  that  some  intellectual  impression  is 
to  precede  spiritual  good.     Therefore, 

4.    Study  the  Bible  sensibly. 

a.  Don't  take  the  poorest  time  in  the  day  for  it. 

b.  Remember  the  kind  of  book  it  is  —  a  library 
of  sixty-six  books  or  pamphlets,  on  very  differ- 
ent themes,  the  work  of  perhaps  forty  authors, 
through  possibly  1600  years. 

c.  You  will  aim  therefore  especially,  at  the 
foundation  and  condition  of  every  other  method 
of  study  of  it,  to  master  its  contents  book  by 
book.  Make  '"■  book  studies."  Discover  for  each 
book  its  plan,  its  purpose,  the  principle  upon 
which  its  material  has  been  selected,  its  title, 
its  main  divisions,  its  complete  analysis  (after 
the  fashion  of  those  in  the  Cambridge  Bible  for 
Schools  and  Colleges),  its  place  in  the  revelation 
of  God,  its  connection  with  the  other  books. 
Don't  be  superficial.  Ask  for  its  great  dominant 
thoughts  rather  than  for  its  "  keywords."  You 
will  thus  be  prepared  to  take  a  comprehensive 
view  of  all  Scriptures,  in  the  great  divisions. 
This  study  of  single  books  may  begin  almost  any- 


HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  BIBLE  REAL         207 

where  with  profit,  but  you  may  find  it  easiest  to 
begin  with  some  of  the  short  Epistles. 

d.  Put  the  Psalms  (which  cover  a  period  of 
perhaps  500  years)  and  the  Prophecies,  as  far  as 
possible,  into  their  historical  setting.  They  often 
gain  greatly  in  vividness  and  power  from  a  clear 
knowledge  of  these  connections.  George  Adam 
Smith's  The  Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets  has 
a  wonderful  contribution  to  make  in  this  respect 
to  the  understanding  of  the  "  Minor  Prophets." 

e.  Consider  the  character  of  the  passage  under 
study.  Do  not  make  history  into  exhortation, 
nor  poetry  into  prose,  nor  genealogies  into  prophe- 
cies. Study  the  history  as  history,  yet  as  his- 
tory written  for  a  purpose,  the  statistics  as 
statistics,  the  legislation  as  legislation.  Do  not 
be  disappointed  that  the  first  chapter  of  Chron- 
icles does  not  seem  as  rich  in  suggestion  as  the 
fourteenth  of  John.  Consider  the  great  variety 
of  Scripture,  and  adapt  your  methods  to  its  vary- 
ing parts.  Use  your  common  sense,  and  call 
to  your  aid  such  helps  as  you  would  employ  in 
the  study  of  similar  literature  in  other  books. 
Notice  who  is  speaking  in  the  passage,  and  don't 
quote  the  devil,  nor  Job's  comforters,  for  gospel 
truth.  Note,  too,  the  circumstances  and  temh 
perament  of  each  writer,  so  far  as  you  can  get 
at  them. 

/.  Particularly  remember  that  the  Bible  is  not 
a  collection  of  mottoes,  from  which  any  verse 
may  be  taken,  to  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale; 


2o8      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

and  that  this  motto  use  has  been  one  of  the 
greatest  hindrances  to  an  intelligent  and  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  Bible.     Therefore, 

5.  Study  the  Bible  honestly. 

Consider  carefully  the  immediate  context;  see 
that  you  are  not  putting  on  the  words  a  meaning 
which  they  cannot  bear  in  the  connection.  Be 
scrupulously  honest  in  this.  "  Allow  for  your- 
self and  your  prejudices."  Don't  come  to  the 
Bible  to  read  your  ideas  into  it.  Do  not  cultivate 
the  fatal  facility  of  deriving  any  number  of 
morals  from  the  same  passage.  Ask  rather  for 
the  plain  and  simple  meaning  of  the  passage, 
avoiding  "  ingenious  interpretations."  Seek  to 
discover  by  a  careful  study  of  the  passage  in  its 
entirety,  in  its  immediate  context  and  in  its  set- 
ting in  the  book,  what  the  manifest  meaning  and 
purpose  of  the  writer  was,  and  exalt  that  lesson, 
not  any  other.  In  many  cases  there  is  no  lesson 
to  be  drawn  from  a  number  of  verses;  the  com- 
plete narrative  must  be  taken  to  give  the  ground 
for  inferring  the  purpose  of  the  writer. 

6.  Study  the  Bible  systematically. 

a.  Not  *'  hit  or  miss,"  a  few  verses  here  or 
there,  anywhere  as  it  happens.  It  is  impossible 
that  any  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  Bible 
should  come  to  you  in  that  way. 

h.  Not  superstitiously,  opening  the  Bible,  as 
a  book  of  magic,  morning  by  morning,  as  though 
you  had  a  promise  that  the  book  would  open  at 
the  precise  passage  that  you  needed  for  the  day. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  BIBLE  REAL        209 

Laziness  and  refusing  to  use  one's  intellect  are 
no  means  of  grace. 

c.  Not  in  constant  repetition  of  certain  favor- 
ite passages.  Whole  stretches  of  unexplored 
truth  are  before  you.  You  have  no  right  to  limit 
yourself  to  a  few  chosen  passages.  Even  these 
very  passages  suffer  by  such  treatment. 

7.  Read  large  portions  at  a  time,  often.  YoU 
can  hardly  know  how  the  Bible  really  tastes,  when 
you  always  read  it  in  little  bits.  You  could  not 
enjoy  Shakespeare  or  Scott  or  Gibbon  so.  You 
do  not  yet  know  the  charm,  the  interest,  the  en- 
grossing power  of  the  Bible,  if  you  have  not  read 
large  sections  of  it  at  a  single  sitting  —  not  so 
many  set  chapters  to  fulfill  a  duty,  but  a  complete 
section,  really  to  master  the  thought.  Read  one 
of  Paul's  letters  entire,  considering  its  circum- 
stances, as  you  would  any  letter  today,  at  a  single 
sitting  really  to  see  what  he  says.  Some  Sunday 
afternoon,  read  a  whole  Gospel,  not  as  a  task, 
but  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  single  comprehensive 
view  of  Christ's  life,  trying  to  put  yourself  in 
the  position  of  one  reading  the  story  for  the  first 
time.  Make  the  Bible  live  for  you.  There  are^ 
seventeen  books  of  the  New  Testament,  each  of 
which  can  be  read  in  seventeen  minutes  or  less.J 

8.  a.  You  may  profitably  study  the  Bible 
topically,  trying  first  through  your  own  knowl- 
edge, then  through  marginal  references  and  a  con- 
cordance, to  gather  the  sweep  of  the  Bible  teach- 
ing on  a  single  topic,  like  faith,  the  conditions 


2IO      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  peace,  what  it  is  to  come  to  Christ,  the  proper 
use  of  money,  and  all  practical  questions  con- 
cerning which  you  want  instruction  and  guidance. 
This  is  to  bring  the  Bible  to  bear  very  practically 
on  life.  One  needs  to  be  very  careful,  however, 
in  this  topical  study,  that  he  does  not  quote  the 
Bible  without  discrimination,  but  that  he  takes 
full  and  honest  account  of  the  context  of  the  pas- 
sages, and  of  the  entire  historical  setting.  We 
have  to  do  with  a  progressive  revelation  —  cul- 
minating in  Christ ;  and  the  character  and  teach- 
ing of  Christ  are  our  standard  inside  as  well  as 
outside  the  Bible. 

h.  It  is  also  of  great  interest  to  study  the 
Bible  about  biographical  centers.  Take  the  life 
of  a  single  one  of  the  Bible  characters,  like 
Moses,  or  Saul,  or  Samuel,  or  David  (choosing 
preferably  at  the  beginning  of  such  studies  a 
minor  character,  where  the  material  is  not  too 
voluminous),  and  try  to  master  all  that  the  Bible 
gives  about  him;  gather  about  him  all  related 
material,  endeavor  to  understand  his  circum- 
stances and  his  age,  and  put  down  in  order 
all  the  separate  facts  concerning  him  so  obtained 
directly  or  by  side-lights.  These  facts  now  are  to 
be  made  the  basis  of  your  inferences  concerning 
the  development  and  character  of  the  man.  Such 
a  character  study  is  not  only  interesting  but  has 
the  most  potent  teaching  for  life. 

c.  For  the  sake  of  variety,  it  is  sometimes  use- 
ful to   read   a   book   with   a   single   thought   in 


HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  BIBLE  REAL         211 

mind  —  what  warnings  has  it,  or  what  exhorta- 
tions, what  promises,  what  hints  of  further  possi- 
bilities of  the  Christian  life,  what  suggestions 
for  Christian  work,  what  revelation  of  God,  etc. 
d.  But  it  must  never  be  forgotten,  that  all 
fragmentary  methods  must  be  based  on  the  com- 
prehensive study  of  the  books.  Only  so  can  one 
be  sure  of  the  legitimacy  of  the  use  of  the  de- 
tached verses. 

9.  Remember  it  is  God's  word  to  you.  There 
is  no  other  person  in  the  world  to  whom  it  was 
sent  more  than  to  you. 

10.  It  is  God's  text-hook  for  the  earthly  train- 
ing. It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  this  book  He 
has  chosen  out  of  all  the  earthly  writings  of  the 
world,  as  that  which  especially  concerns  your 
life.  This  you  need,  this  you  are  to  study,  this 
it  is  your  duty  to  study.  There  is  no  rational 
reason  why  you  should  not  come  to  have  a  wide 
and  careful  knowledge  of  it. 

11.  Here  are  revelations.  You  have  wanted 
visions,  some  personal  revelation,  perhaps,  giving 
reality  to  the  spiritual  life.  A  vision  could  do 
only  one  of  two  things  for  you  that  would  be 
valuable,  give  you  a  new  truth,  or  a  fresh  realiza- 
tion of  an  old  truth.  The  Spirit  waits  to  give  you 
both  these  things  in  the  Word.    For, 

12.  The  Spirit  speaks  through  the  Word.  It  is 
the  meeting  place  of  the  soul  and  God.  God 
would  speak  to  you  there.  The  Bible  is  the 
record  of  the  pre-eminent  meetings  of  God  with 


212      THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

men,  and  in  these  each  may  share.  Ask  God  to 
open  your  eyes,  and  to  unstop  your  ears.  Pray 
that  the  Spirit  may  bring  home  to  you  His  own 
Word.  It  is  directly  through  the  Word  that  you 
are  to  expect  that  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
work  of  the  Spirit  for  you  is  to  be  wrought  out. 
How  can  he  take  the  things  of  Christ  and  show 
them  unto  you,  except  as  you  give  him  oppor- 
tunity through  your  poring  over  Christ's  life? 
Lord,  speak  to  me,  and  then  speak  through  me. 

13.  The  Word  is  the  greatest  and  most  rational 
means  to  association  with  Christ  —  coming  into 
understanding  of  His  thoughts,  feelings,  purposes, 
acts,  and  into  harmony  with  them,  and  thus  being 
molded  into  His  likeness  by  persistent  association. 
Pore  over  the  life  of  Christ  to  drink  in  its  spirit. 
And  so  the  Word  becomes  the  greatest  and  most 
rational  means  to  personal  acquaintance  with 
God.  We  may  as  certainly  and  truly  come  to 
know  Him  through  His  Word,  as  we  may  come 
to  know  a  correspondent  whom  we  have  never 
seen  through  his  letters.  The  one  road  to  faith 
in  God  is  knowledge  of  Him,  and  this  knowledge 
is  in  His  Word.  "  And  this  is  Hfe  eternal,  that 
they  should  know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and 
him  whom  thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ." 

14.  For  the  sake  of  those  who  are  just  begin- 
ning to  read  their  Bible,  the  following  passages 
may  be  suggested  as  of  themselves  particularly 
helpful,  and  as  well  suited  to  introduce  them  to 
the  contents  of  the  Bible,  and  so  prepare  the  way 


HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  BIBLE  REAL         213 

a  little  more  easily,  perhaps,  for  the  use  of  the 
better  methods  suggested  above:  Matthew,  chap- 
ters 5-7;  Luke,  chapters  12-15;  John,  chapters 
1-3  and  13-17;  Acts,  chapter  2;  Romans,  chap- 
ters 8,  12;  I  Corinthians,  chapters  13,  15;  II 
Corinthians,  chapter  4 :  16  to  chapter  7:1;  Ephe- 
sians;  Philippians,  chapters  3,  4;  Colossians;  I 
Thessalonians,  chapter  5 ;  I  Timothy,  chapter  4 ; 
II  Timothy,  chapter  2;  James,  chapters  1-3; 
I  Peter;  Revelation,  chapters  1-3,  21,  22 \  Psalms 
I,  19,  23,  25,  2-7,  40,  43,  46,  51,  63,  91,  103,  116, 
121 ;   Isaiah,  chapters  40,  42,  53,  54. 


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